


Winds of Change: Season One

by Rosebud1773



Series: Winds of Change [1]
Category: Gargoyles (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gargoyles - Freeform, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-07-14 22:39:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 83,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16050017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosebud1773/pseuds/Rosebud1773
Summary: Reader Discretion is Advised: Sexual Content/Strong Language.A time of change has begun. Elisa wants a 'normal' life with a husband and kids. Goliath is devastated when she cuts ties with him. Both want what seems impossibly out of their reach. How will they react when the Winds of Change gust around them?





	1. Masquerade

All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of Rosebud1773 (R.A.Lyon).

Winds of Change

Chapter One

Elisa sat rolling the small urn back and forth in her hands miserably. The image of a cat was elaborately engraved on one side. The artist had outdone herself with exquisite detail. One word was etched beneath the image: Cagney. The contents of this urn was all that remained of her cat. She sighed and placed the urn in the center of the coffee table. She wouldn't leave it there indefinitely, but it was as good a place as any for the time being. First the gargoyles. No one to blame but herself on that one, she snorted in disgust. Now her cat. Was she being punished for a series of bad choices? She resisted the urge to ask who or what she would lose next as she got to her feet. It was time for a shower, a long hot one. At least that couldn't elude her like she knew sleep would.

As she had expected, sleep did not come easily or peacefully. Cold showers were not conducive to sleep. Maintenance was going to hear about that for sure. She burrowed deeper into the blankets and buried her face into the top of a body pillow. Tears slowly soaked into it as she drifted off into a restless sleep.

* * * * * * * * * *

Three long miserably exhausting and lonely months; that was how long it had been since Elisa had walked out of Goliath's life. She had walked out of all their lives truthfully. The hunter's moon had brought such grief followed by such joy he had thought his heart would burst. The certainty that she was dead, due in part to his own failure. It was his duty to protect her. When she fell, it had been his purpose to catch her, he had missed. He was sure she had drown and that certainty had driven him to the brink of sanity. When she had returned to him that fateful night of the hunter's defeat, he had not been able to contain his joy. She had kissed him in the pre-dawn light that morning. Even now, he could still feel it tingling across his lips. The passions of his former life paled in comparison to the fire that one brief contact had ignited in his soul. Alas, it was not to be...

* * * * * * * * * *

It was a dream,...but it had been real. Elisa's mind relentlessly replayed the events following the clock tower's destruction. Oh how her heart had soared that morning high up on the castle's tallest tower. Goliath had looked so regal, so noble and the fires of passion in his eyes were for her alone. What she felt for him was beyond anything she had ever felt for anyone else. It was overwhelming to realize he felt the connection as well. She had dismissed his lingering touches, the odd glances and faint smiles as mere curiosity or even just tolerance of her differences. That was why it had been so hard at first to maintain eye-contact on his lofty daytime perch.

“You know how I feel about you, right?” It was surreal. She was as an observer for that brief moment as the words slipped softly from her lips.

“How....we both feel. Yes..” The tenderness in his expression as he ran a talon oh so delicately through her hair was breathtaking.

“Good...” and before she lost her nerve, she had hopped up and hooked her arms around his neck. The kiss was brief, little more than a peck, but the promise it hinted at seemed to take on an eternal quality.

When sunrise claimed him for the day, she looked at that beautiful winged form. So alien in it's grace and nobility. What was she doing? They were so different, not like her parents, but so much more so. Were they physically compatible? Could they even risk pursuing a relationship knowing that eventually it would lead them down that path? There were so many questions and she had no answers. It wasn't like she could go to the library and look up gargoyle anatomy. The elation she had felt only moments ago turned to something akin to fear as she all but ran for the elevator.

* * * * * * * * * *

The heavy thump on the balcony was masked by distant thunder. He lingered there for a moment making sure his presence had not been noticed. In the human world, their laws would have labeled him a stalker this night. It was fortunate he did not trouble himself with many of their more trivial laws. No matter how troubled she might be, how lost or even angry, Elisa was still the one human he had vowed to protect above all others. He could no more stop protecting her than breathing the air. To him, she was his castle, his home, his very life. Even if all he would ever be was her friend, he would take it as if it were life-sustaining nourishment.

Quietly opening the sliding glass door, a door that was never locked to his clan, Goliath slipped inside. He was amazingly silent considering his great size and weight. The small gray purring bundle of fur that was Elisa's cat did not greet him as normal. He glanced around for the delightful animal and noticed something odd after a moment. On the coffee table was a small vase with a sealed lid. There were such things in the Eyrie building. Xanatos had once told him that his mother was represented by one of them. Now Goliath knelt before the coffee table and gingerly turned the object around on its resting place. The shadows deepened over the etched image of a cat and one word. He drew his hand back from the object as if burned with a sharp intake of breath.

“Oh, my Elisa, I am so very sorry,” he whispered to the emptiness of the room.

He wandered when the cat had passed. Had Elisa been so cold, so cruel to him all those nights ago out of grief? Had she seen him as a pet? No! He would not accept even the hint of that idea. The thought was pushed aside brutally. He had seen how her face seemed to glow when she looked at him. There was a passion in her eyes, a passion that he suspected Demona had never felt for him. Perhaps, he thought, she had pushed him away because she feared she would lose him as she had her closest companion. His was not a life of peace, after all. There were many who sought to destroy him and his kind. Death was, in reality, the most indiscriminate force in all the world.

Standing to his full height, he thought to leave before she sensed his presence. They were drawn to each other like moths to flame. To his mind, she might very well have pushed him away due to the compulsion they both felt. The need to be close, to touch each other seemed as powerful as the tides. Perhaps it frightened her. There were questions he knew he might never know the answers to, he realized as he drew up short of her bedroom door. What was he doing? He had meant to return to the balcony and leave. Instead he found himself hesitating before the thing slab of wood that separated him from the slumbering sight of his love. He must check on her, assure himself that she was well. Something deep within prodded him onward to do so.

With a sigh and a silent pray to whatever gods might be listening, he carefully opened the door. The hinges creaked faintly in protest and he held his breath. The form on the bed mumbled something incoherently and rolled over. He stood there watching her for a time. It was clear by the way she fought at the bedding that her dreams were troubling. He longed to wrap her in his arms and protect her even from this, but he knew he could not. She might never allow herself to be swept up in his arms again, he realized sadly.

Goliath turned to go. He had lingered far too long as it was, should never have come by her apartment in the first place. What had he hoped to achieve? Being here, surrounded by her maddeningly sweet scent only added to his heartache. He could hear her tossing fitfully, thrashing at the bedding. She was sobbing in her sleep. Glancing back, he knew he needed to leave. He was sure his scent was whipping her dreams into a tempest. Her sense of smell was nowhere near as acute as his own, but he knew she could pick up his unique leather and earth scent. If nothing else, she could sense his presence. She had always had an uncanny knack for knowing when he was near.

* * * * * * * * * *

The dream was ruthless, more like a fever dream in its intensity. It forced her to relive every single cutting word she had said to him...

“This _can't_ work, Goliath. We are just too different.” she had raged at him.

“It is merely difficult, Elisa...” he would have added more, but she stopped in her pacing and overrode whatever he had been about to say.

“This...” she gestured wildly, “this isn't supposed to be difficult!”

Elisa continued her pacing. She felt like a caged animal under the scrutiny of his smoldering eyes. There was hurt in those eyes and she had caused it. She would cause more, but she had to. It was for the best, something that needed to be done for both of them. He would see the logic in her actions sooner or later. The clan needed him. They needed their leader. They needed his DNA.

Ceasing her pacing once more to glare at him with an anger she did not feel, Elisa changed the course of her argument. “What about kids, Goliath? I'd like to have couple of those. We both know that you and I can't have children together. What about the clan and the coming breeding season you've mentioned?”

“There are no suitable female gargoyles in Manhattan.” Goliath began a little more defensively than he meant to. He softened his tone as he added, “Even if there were, I would not choose her solely to bare my offspring. There is more to gargoyle mating than that.”

“You're wrong. There are others,” she was about to mention Demona and caught his eyes narrowing dangerously. Instead, she changed the momentum of her words. “De... Delilah comes to mind. She's beautiful, intelligent....”

“Submissive, weak-minded, and a pale reflection of you.” Goliath finished.

“But she's a gargoyle or close enough. She's one of your kind. Let's face it, Goliath. We both need to be with our own kind. It's as simple as that. Your clan needs hatchlings. I need someone who doesn't turn to stone during the day.” Each word was like an ice pick through her heart and from the pinched look on his face, she knew he felt the same. She continued forward anyway. “Xanatos is throwing a Halloween party this year. Invite Delilah, show her you're not like Thailog. Who knows, you might even have fun.”

Goliath was about to object when the sound of a phone ringing interrupted him. Elisa fished around in her pocket and produced a small device that looked for all the world like a cordless phone. She held up a hand and stepped toward one of the many walls that surrounded the courtyard. From the tone of her voice, she was not terribly pleased with the person on the other end of the device. The conversation was heated and when it ended she very deliberately tossed the phone into the fountain. It made a small splash and sank to the bottom.

“Look, that was Chavez, I should go.” Elisa grumbled.

“Yes, perhaps you should...” Goliath said in a low, sad sounding sigh as he turned to look out over the city.

_So that's it then_ , she thought miserably. It was done. She had set him free, set them both free, to find happiness with one of their own kind. It was supposed to be a good thing. If it was so good, why did she feel so horrible? She was not aware of walking away from him until she found herself at street level. There she stood as rain burst from the sky. She glanced back at the building, the castle above was shrouded in dark clouds, but she knew he would be standing up there. For an instant she thought she heard the sound an angel might give utterance to as it plummeted to its death.

“That went well...,” she whispered to no one in particular as she drew her red leather bomber jacket closer against the chill of the rain. Her gaze lingered a moment longer on the building. Turning away, she walked toward her car. The rain hid the tears that slid down her cheeks.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Goliath....,” it was such a heart-wrenching sob that he turned back to her.

His gaze was locked on her still sleeping form as he padded to the side of her bed. He risked much by being so close to her now. His eyes traced the shape or her fondly. She had fought her bed so fiercely that the blankets were draped over the edge, half of them on the floor. One long, lean, tan leg gleamed softly in the moonlight that spilled through the window as it dangled over the edge of the mattress. Her shirt was hiked up offering him a tantalizing view of the bottom curve of one breast. The scant scrap of cloth that covered her most intimate area left little to his wildly soaring imagination in its sheerness. By the dragon, but she was beautiful. It did not matter that she lacked wing, tail, claw or spur. In his eyes, she was a goddess made flesh. His eyes lingered on the scars of gunshot and surgery that had nearly taken her from him.

Elisa cried his name again in her sleep softly. Her dreams apparently deteriorating more and more into nightmare. Her sobbing grew violent. He knelt beside her bed fearing that she would awaken and become angry at his presence, angry that he had witnessed her weakness. Throwing caution to the wind he reached for her hair, then hesitated. She curled into a tight ball sobbing into her pillow, his name on her lips several times. It nearly undid him to see her in such turmoil, such pain. Clearly her decision to walk away from him had caused her as much pain as it did him. He understood the reasoning behind the choice, but that did not make it any easier to accept.

Gently, Goliath ran a talon through her silken hair. It seemed to ease her suffering and the sobs subsided slowly. Unconsciously, she snuggled closer to his large hand. Her own hand sought his out and gripped it as her eyes slowly rolled open, her mind still clouded with sleep.

“You're not 'sposed to be 'ere,” she whispered barely coherent.

“I'm not here. 'Tis but a dream, my love. You are still sleeping.” Goliath whispered and was pleased to see her nod and snuggle back into her pillow.

Elisa breathed out a sigh that seemed much more contented. He watched her breathing change and take on the steadiness of deep sleep. After several more moments taking in the beauty of her relaxed features, he disentangled his hand from hers. Dawn was coming, he could feel the familiar stirrings in his core that heralded his coming sleep. Glancing out the window, he knew there was time enough to make it back to the castle. The sky was only just taking on the purple before sunrise would turn it to glorious streaks of reds, pinks and oranges. A sight he longed to see again without the menacing burden of ensorcellment.

Goliath carefully placed a feather-lite kiss on her forehead then stood to his full height. A faint smile crossed her tear-stained face as the behemoth picked his way through her tangled blankets back to the door. He quietly closed the door, but did not latch it. The wood seemed oddly swollen and threatened thunderous noise should he attempt to close it completely. Water squished between his toes as he let himself out onto the balcony. The thunder he had heard early had brought the promised rain sometime in the last hour. Clearly her window was leaking. The platter-sized footprint he left in the wet carpet near the glass door did not cross his mind until he was more than half way to the Eyrie building. By then, it was too late to turn back to do anything about it. She would know he had been there.

* * * * * * * * * *

Halloween....Sunset...

“Your guest is here, Goliath,” the blasé tone reminded Goliath of plain oatmeal. The Puck's bland alter ego Owen Burnette stood ramrod straight several feet behind him as the last of his stone skin crumbled to the floor. “Mr. Xanatos took the liberty of having her transported here early this afternoon. He thought it best with the increasing indications that Thailog may yet live.”

For his part, Goliath thanked the pale, annoying little man and glided down to the courtyard. He would do his duty and make Delilah feel as welcome as possible. She had so little acceptance in her short existence, a good deal of that was his fault, to be sure. He did not wish to hurt her further. That was why he would be gentle with her feelings, but it would be clear that he was not interested in pursuing anything more than friendship with her.

The party was just getting started, guests still arriving as Goliath and the others entered Wyvern's great hall. Xanatos had outdone himself. There was music, food and drinks laid out in banquet style, and people everywhere. All were dressed in a variety of costumes in celebration of the occasion. None spared the gargoyles more than a passing glance as they entered. Broadway, of course, headed straight for the buffet table. Brooklyn gave Angela a sad, lonely glance before splitting off to join some of the party-goers on a makeshift dance floor near the far end of the giant room. Lexington veered off in the direction of the large dj booth that had been erected not far from the dance floor.

Hudson had been right, it was loud. Goliath wandered again if he had had the right of it. The old warrior had opted to 'stay in' tonight. He and Bronx were holed up in the media room watching their 'programs'. Goliath suspected it was more like napping in front of the television. These past months, the elder had been napping quite a bit more than was strictly normal for a gargoyle his age. He begged the dragon that it was just the medication to control his glaucoma and not something more sinister. It had been a shock to hear that even a gargoyle could be afflicted by anything their stone hibernation could not throw off. Something they had always believed was a condition reserved for humanity alone.

Goliath missed a step and bumped into the huge door frame as he saw two things: Delilah dressed as the Greek goddess Aphrodite and Elisa exiting the elevator dressed as Jasmine. In that moment, he believed that if he were stricken blind he would happily walk in the darkness for the rest of his life with that one image forever etched into his mind's eye. Then he saw Elisa's 'date' step out behind her. Officer Morgan looked ridiculous. He had expected the man might have dressed up like Aladdin from the same Disney movie Elisa represented. He had, of course taken his costume from the movie; however, it was not Aladdin. He had dressed as Jafar. The giant oddly shaped hat was bad enough on its own, but the stuffed parrot on his shoulder caused Goliath to snort in an unbecoming way. The flowing robes were nothing new to him. He had seen plenty of that sort of fanfare in the 10th century. That parrot simply had to go.

The clan leader was about to take a step toward them, intending to mention the stuffed parrot when Delilah stepped into his path. Upon seeing Elisa, he had all but forgotten Delilah was meant to be his 'date' for the evening. He dropped his gaze to the gargess wishing that she were Elisa. She looked so much like her and yet there was a hint of Demona in her face. The brow ridges were decidedly Demona's. Elegant and beautiful though they were on Delilah's face, they still reminded him of his former mate. In a way they seemed to tarnish Elisa's beauty, which was dominant in that face. Her hair was snow white, but that only added to her beauty. In another time and place, he might have swooned for the creature before him. There was nothing about her that did not scream of sex appeal. He suspected her outfit must have been Fox's idea. Her attempt to ease his break with Elisa. In reality it only made the break harder. There was something about Delilah's eyes, the intelligence behind them that made him long for his lost love. He could not play at mates as he had in his youth. It would not be fair to this gorgeous creature before him.

* * * * *

The Masquerade

Elisa felt ridiculous and Morgan looked even worse than she felt. She hadn't wanted to come to this silly party in the first place. Goliath would be here. She wasn't ready to face him or the rest of the clan just yet. She knew he had been in her apartment a few nights before. The telltale signs were there. A giant three-taloned footprint in the wet carpet, Cagney's urn turned so that it was facing the balcony, her bedroom door left slightly ajar and the dream that was not a dream of him stroking her hair to sooth her nightmare. When she had realized he had been there she was furious at first. She had gone through several emotions, anger, resentment, outrage, guilt and most of all anguish. Elisa was heartbroken and it was her own fault. She had raged at him about wanting a 'normal' life and so here she was, with ridiculous Morgan 'Jafar' Morgan. Who gave their kid the same first name as their last name anyway? It was so weird.

Heart almost stopping when she saw him across the room, Elisa met Goliath's eyes for a split second. Then Delilah took his attention and the moment was gone. He smiled at the 'girl', but the smile did not seem to reach his eyes as he took her hand. Elisa's heart sank at the sight. Maybe she was kidding herself. He was a gargoyle, after all. What did she know of the workings of gargoyle emotions? Stone sleep might throw off emotional hurts the same as it did physical hurts as far as she knew. Of course, she was kidding herself and she knew it. Goliath had proven that was a false assumption years ago when he had tried in vain to reclaim what he had lost with Demona. That 'woman' was a viper. She had played Goliath like a harp from hell to achieve her own ends. It had left him heartbroken and cautious of anything involving the heart for a long time. And now, Elisa had effectively broken his heart as well after he had only just begun to trust it again. She felt like a heel and she was jealous.

Morgan, a good ten years Elisa's senior, was nobody's fool. He knew he was a 'rebound guy'. That would have bothered him if he had really been interested in dating her. At one time, he had been. Now he was just in it as a friend trying to get another friend out of a deep funk. The gargoyles were old news, he had seen them in the night skies. He had even come face to face with the big one once right after the clock tower was blown to hell. He took it all in stride, he was a New York cop, after all. It was not hard to piece together the bigger picture here. The detective spent a good deal of her time at the Eyrie building, had since the night a good many boulders had fallen to the street from its top. She had refused a promotion that would have put her on day shift. And somehow she always managed to bag the biggest, meanest douchebags out there...by her self. It was obvious that she was getting help from some serious muscle to do that. What he had not expected was the intelligence behind the eyes of the creature helping her. The night they put the hunters behind bars, he saw the big one embrace Elisa as if she were made of glass. Clearly there was a deep love in the voice that had come forth when the girl had come into his line of sight. If not for her, those hunters would have so much hamburger in the morgue. The gargoyle had seemed intent on tearing them apart for what he perceived as Elisa's untimely death.

No, Morgan had no intention of pursuing romance with Eliza Maza. He wanted to keep his intestines in their indigenous location; inside. Tonight, in the most ridiculous costume he could find from a movie theme she had suggested, he was here as a friend. He hoped to get a moment alone with the giant gargoyle and have a man-to-man or a man-to-beast as it were. Sitting back and watching her spiral deeper into depression was not on his bucket list. He was going to do something about it if at all possible. If that meant facing down a 'man' that reminded him, for all the world of a dragon, he would do so.

“Hey, look...maybe this wasn't such a great idea..,” Elisa began, her attention still half on the big gargoyle moving off to one of the side doors across the room.

“Yeah,” Morgan sighed. “maybe you're right. I feel ridiculous in this outfit anyway. What do you say, I get us some drinks and we head for one of those balconies, get some fresh air?”

“I think I'm gonna go.. I don't feel right being here, not now...,” she said and turned toward the elevator.

Morgan reached up and slid his hat off revealing a smattering of gray in his short-cropped hair. He glanced at the silly side-ways-leaning parrot on his shoulder and stifled a half disgusted snicker. “Let's have that drink. C'mon. We just got here. You may never get another chance to hit Xanatos with a bill for the most expensive drink you can find.”

Elisa shuffled her feet uncomfortably for a moment and looked back at Morgan. His smile was infectious and she soon found herself smiling back. Xanatos did owe her quite a bit. It would be nice to collect, even in a small way, on that bill. “Alright, but on one condition.”

“What's that?” Morgan asked still wearing his smile.

“Lose that stupid parrot,” Elisa waggled one of her high heels at his shoulder. She had slipped them off in the elevator, something about balance and weird lift movement not mixing.

“You got it,” Morgan laughed and proceeded to rip the bird off its velcro perch. He tossed it and the big hat onto a chair that sat close to the elevator and went in search of those drinks.

* * * * *

Elisa made her way out one of the many doors that lead to a balcony. She wasn't sure if this was the joined balcony that wrapped around to the courtyard or not. If it was, Goliath could be in the dark anywhere. She realized he could just as easily be gliding through the night with Delilah and a pang of jealousy hit her like a hot-flash. She leaned against the cool stone half-wall and looked out across the twinkling lights of the city; her city.

* * * * *

Morgan found the big gargoyle on the adjacent balcony. _Hang onto your butt, Morgan_ , he thought as he cleared his throat.

Goliath glanced over his shoulder from his deep contemplation of the city. He was alone. Of Delilah, there was no trace. He wore a bitter expression that could easily have curdled milk. Morgan was wandering if this was such a good idea as he stepped forward and leaned on the stone railing.

“Quite a night, isn't it,” Morgan sighed into the breeze.

“Yes...,” Goliath answered, drawing out the word in a deep, almost mournful tone.

Morgan twisted around, leaning one elbow on the railing and peered at the gargoyle for several minutes. He could see the man behind the beastly facade. It was not hard. He could also see the deep sadness that seemed to wreath his brow like a heavy crown. A sadness his fellow cop shared in buckets.

“Is there something I can do for you, Officer Morgan?” Goliath asked feeling a little uncomfortable with the human male's deep scrutiny. He felt as if this human were trying to gauge him in some way.

“Actually...there is,” Morgan began, running a hand over his short-cropped hair.

“And that is....?” Goliath prodded.

“Talk to her..,” Morgan sighed. He was unsure of how to broach the subject. Keeping it simple at first might be the best way around it.

Before he could catch himself, Goliath said in a forbidding tone, “I have already spoken with Delilah. Neither of us wishes to pursue anything more than friendship...”

“Well, that's good news, but she's _not_ who I meant.” Morgan was beginning to think Goliath was a little thick in the head when it came to women. Maybe he was, he thought. Half the men on the planet could not claim to know what a woman truly wanted.

“Then who...?” Goliath looked Morgan squarely in the eyes then and it struck him like a bolt of lightning. He even seemed to twitch before he recovered himself. “Elisa has made her intentions _abundantly_ clear. I do not fit into her picture of 'normalcy'.”

“Yeah, whatever, Romeo. Your Juliette has been miserable for months now. She barely eats, doesn't sleep, won't socialize with anybody in the precinct and mopes around like somebody killed her cat.” Morgan held up his hand at the horrified look that crossed Goliath's face and continued, “Which, by the way, somebody did. Some little punk playing with a bb gun took a lucky potshot at it.”

“I had wandered....,” Goliath mumbled, the reference to Shakespeare not lost on him even as he realized Morgan wasn't finished.

“The point is, she needs you and from what I've seen of how you're moping around this party, you need her too, even if you're both too chicken-shit to admit it. Whatever happened between you two can't possibly justify crippling your souls with silence and avoidance.” Morgan was afraid he had gone too far, but he swallowed hard at the scowl and kept right on talking. “She's here tonight wishing she was anyplace else. I think after she saw you and that female gargoyle together, she would have happily walked into hell to get away. She's barefoot, by the way and my guess is she wouldn't even notice the burning inferno if it swallowed her up. Her face just crumpled in like so much tissue paper. I have never seen her so hurt. She wanted to leave as soon as she saw the other girl. Can't blame her, really. Wings and all, that girl was stunning.”

“She is lovely, but.......she is not Elisa....,”Goliath seemed to sigh wistfully.

“And that's what I'm getting at. Suck it up, be a man and go tell your woman how you really feel. Life is too short to be so damn miserable.” Morgan could not believe he was talking to this gigantic winged behemoth as if he were a 20-something lovesick kid, but he was.

“I am not a man...,” Goliath protested weakly.

“And I'm tuna salad. Who cares what you are on the outside. You're a man on the inside or you wouldn't understand a damn thing I'm trying to tell you. Be a man, be a gargoyle, be a dragon, be a damn rainbow crappin' unicorn for all I care, but please save that woman from herself before it's too late. It's not rocket science.” Morgan blasted him.

Goliath scowled at Morgan and the cop thought he was about to become a greasy spot on the stone floor. The giant gargoyle straightened and put the foot that had been on the railing back down on the floor. His expression softened, but only just. “Perhaps,” he said with a bitter smile for Morgan, “you are right.”

“Damn right I am. Now go talk to her before you lose your nerve. I just hope she hasn't left the party yet.” Morgan grumbled. As the big guy moved past him, the cop let out a breath. Moments later, he found a nice cushy chair and practically fell into it. His knees felt like jello. What the _hell_ was he _thinking_?! Goliath could have turned him into a meat pie with those boulders he called hands. He decided he should think things through a little better next time he wanted to confront a gargoyle. The thought struck him then that petite little Elisa Maza and that mountainous temper of hers had probably blasted the gargoyle straight to the stratosphere on more than one occasion. He shook his head and laughed. Brave woman! That would have been worth gold to see given their extreme differences in height and mass.

* * * * *

Elisa heard the door to the balcony open and turned thinking it was Morgan back from his long search for drinks. “I thought you got lost....”

Goliath stood silently in the doorway as if he were deciding how to approach her. Finally he stepped fully into the moonlight and allowed the door to close behind him. “Morgan said you were here..”

“That's just great! Leave it to me to find the one cop on the whole force brave enough to hunt you down and send you after me!” she snapped and pushed herself away from the half-wall intending to push past him and leave.

“I wish to talk,” Goliath began, seeing his chance to speak to her rapidly evaporating in the face of her anger.

“Well I don't want to talk to you!” she growled and stopped directly in front of him. He was still blocking the door.

“We have much to discuss.” He grumbled at her in a tone sharper than he had intended.

“I think we _discussed_ everything there is to discuss months ago. Now _move_!” there was fire in her eyes at the last.

“We cannot leave it this way, _Elisa_.” Goliath was pleading, actually pleading. It stopped her in her tracks as she made her way around him to the door.

“Oh....This is _priceless_!” came a voice so much like Goliath's that it sent chills down Elisa's spine. She whirled around to see Thailog gracefully drop onto the balcony.

“Thailog! What do you want?!” Goliath growled at the other male, so much like himself and yet so very different.

“I've come to collect my property. Where is Delilah?” he asked in a silken tone.

“No one is the property of another, human or gargoyle. I thought you had learned that lesson!” Goliath roared and rushed the other male.

Elisa saw the flash of steel in the moonlight too late. Thailog thrust the blade into Goliath's gut, grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down, forcing the bladed deeper. He whispered in his ear as he held him firmly on the blade, “I grow tired of our little games, _Father_.”

With a jerk of his arm, Thailog tore the knife from Goliath's gut forcing a grunt from the other male's lips. He pushed him away roughly and turned toward Elisa. He bellowed at her,“Where is Delilah?”

“Go to hell!” Elisa snarled at him.

“Been there, done that, my dear.” he made a grab for her with one hand, talons tangling in her costume and slashed the other at her with something that looked like Freddie Kueger's glove combined with a pickle jar. It grazed her arm drawing a thin stripe of blood as she slipped beyond his reach toward Goliath.

Thailog was not finished with his 'father', however and he charged at them. Elisa, torn between going to Goliath and getting help dove out of the way. She glanced back at Goliath, there was so much blood, more than she had ever seen pour out of him at one time. He looked weak, almost frail slumped against the wall as he was. He struggled to rise, slipped once in his own blood and managed to gain his feet. Putting himself between her and Thailog, he glanced back at her briefly.

“Go, Elisa...!” his voice was barely more than a whisper as he gently pushed her with one large hand toward the door behind them. He was losing an increasing amount of blood with every triplicate beat of his heart. He knew he would not last until sunrise, but at least he would see her safe.

Elisa burst through the door just as the two giant gargoyles clashed. Claws gouged into the stone floor as Goliath slid into the great hall among the party-goers, Thailog's hands locked with his own. The music and chatting stopped abruptly, people screamed and scattered.

Goliath struggled for control, but he was rapidly losing this battle. Weakness from blood loss was taking its toll on his body. He caught a glimpse of Elisa running toward the hallway that lead to the media room and beyond, of the others, he saw no sign. Willing her onward, he knew she would find Hudson and Bronx before the others.

Thailog must have noticed Goliath was weakening. He doubled his efforts to take the other down. Unlike his 'father' he was not above fighting dirty to get what he wanted. He jabbed a fist into Goliath's wound and gained a great deal of satisfaction at the groaning scream it tore from the lavender male's lungs. Again and again he pounded his fist into the wound. He had no intention of allowing Goliath to survive the night. One of the clones, one he had taken back into his fold, had told him Goliath was making moves on his 'mate'. In his eyes, that was a death sentence, but he would not kill him right away. No, Goliath was too strong to die so quickly. Thailog thought he might subdue him and then have some fun with the little human whore that so tantalized his 'father'. Of course, Goliath would have to live long enough to watch. Once he grew tired of her, he would kill them both. Perhaps, he thought with rare bit of sentimentality, they might find in the afterlife what they could not achieve in life.

* * * * *

Goliath's roaring cries of pain chased her down the hallway. She winced with each one and realized they were becoming weaker with every passing moment. The walls of the castle were not completely soundproof and just as she came within sight of the media room, Hudson stepped out, Bronx hot on his heels to escape.

“What's this then?” the old soldier asked as he saw her coming and caught the scent of blood. “You be bleedin'! What's happened?”

“Thailog....,” Elisa panted and did not need to say more as that single word was punctuated by Goliath's weakening cry of pain.

Hudson's eyes widened and flashed pure white even as Bronx took off down the hall in a headlong dash. “By the dragon! Where be the others?”

“Patrol..,” Elisa tried to catch her breath.

“Damn, then it be on us, lass.” Hudson growled as he unsheathed his sword and barreled down the hallway after Bronx. Elisa followed at a safe distance from his thrashing tail.

* * * * *

The ceiling above him shook with a mini-quake and Xanatos looked up from his place at Fox's side. They had not meant to leave their guests on their own for so long, but Fox was a master at seduction. The outfit she had worn had only served to make matters worse. David soon found himself stripped nude in a tangle of fine sheets and long legs. The quake came again accompanied by a faint gargoyle roar and plaster dust raining down on them. It sounded like Goliath, but it was much too faint.

“Looks like the party's over.” David said with a sigh as he leaned in to kiss Fox before climbing out of bed. As he gathered up his scattered clothes, he touched a panel on the wall near the closet. “Owen, how are our guests doing?”

The reply was not as immediate as he would have liked given the circumstance, but it did come. “Not well, Sir. Most of our human guests have fled the fighting. It seems your suspicion that Thailog still lived was correct, after all.”

“Then I win the bet. Prep the Epsilon suit and ready the remainder of the steel clan. This is going to get ugly.” David said as if he were ordering dinner.

“It already is, Sir.” Owen muttered before the intercom was reduced to sizzling static.

Meanwhile, Fox had apparently fished around for her discarded clothing and dressed much faster than her husband. He was delighted to see that she had dawned some of the more important pieces of her Pack armor as well.

“It must be really bad up there if the fight is interfering with the intercom.” she noted as she headed for the door.

“I can't _wait_ to find out,” David said in an annoyed tone as he followed her out.

The elevator opened up on a scene of chaos and carnage. Everything was broken, absolutely everything in the great hall including the intercom system. Then there was the blood, it smeared the walls, the floor, the broken objects. David Xanatos had never seen so much blood. At least he was not one to faint at the sight of it, he thought as he scanned the room both with his own eyes and the HUD system of the Epsilon. He caught a glimpse of Thailog racing out onto one of the balconies with Delilah struggling against him. The clan gave chase, most of them anyway. Goliath was slumped against a greatly blood smeared wall, his breathing shallow and ragged. The detective at his side crying great big cow tears, a feat for which Xanatos had not thought her incapable. She supported the gargoyle's limp head. It was then that he saw the source of the blood. Goliath, his greatest enemy, his greatest friend was bleeding out from a horrible gash in his gut. He thought for a moment that he glimpsed a loop of intestine peaking out from the wound. Sunset was still hours off. He doubted the gargoyle would survive that long.

Fox gasped beside him when the sight laid itself out before her eyes. Without so much as a word, she stepped back into the elevator. David glance back at her and she said two simple words before the door closed. “Dr. Sato.”

* * * * *

Brendon Quarters noticed the party had gone particularly quiet. He had thought all the roaring was due to some of the 'gargoyle' guests messing around. Now he wandered as he stepped through one of many doors. He had been chatting it up with Dr. Jay Sato for the better part of an hour. The doctor was a lightweight, having all but passed out before the roaring had started. Now that things were quiet Brendon thought he would venture out and find something to eat. Food; however, was the last thing he wanted after the carnage met his eyes. He saw the gargoyle slumped over on the floor pouring rivers of crimson from a gut wound. The human could easily have sunk both fists into it with room to spare. _That_ , he decided, _is not a costume_. In that moment, it didn't matter if it really was a gargoyle or just a very big man in a suit, the guy needed help. He turned around and stepped back out the door he had come from. It was time the good doctor had some coffee. _Ok, a lot of coffee and maybe some speed as a chaser_ , he thought as his eyes fell on the decidedly drunk doctor.

* * * * *

Elisa cradled his head in her lap and smoothed his hair away from his sweat soaked brow, a brow that was so different from her own. The brow spikes were not as sharp as she had thought they would be. She had often dreamed of touching his hair, exploring its texture at her leisure. Now she had the chance to do just that, but it was not the pleasure she longed for. Goliath lay near death. His pulse was sluggish, his breathing shallow and the flush of lavender across his skin growing paler by the second. He barely had the strength to keep his eyes open, but somehow he did and his gaze never left her face.

Goliath mustered the strength to reach up and run a weak talon through her hair, making sure he had her attention. His voice, when it came, was the roughened whisper of dry leaves skittering over pavement. “You cannot stop me.....I will....say it....this once...,” he had to take a breath, he was dying and he was at peace with it so long as she knew the deepest secret of his heart. “I love you...”

The tears flowed freely now and her breath hitched, “I love you too.” The words felt so natural, so normal. She bent down and kissed his lips tenderly. When she drew back there was a faint smile on his lips. It faded away when his eyes rolled back and slid shut.

Goliath's body went limp in her arms and he slid further down the wall. She had manhandled him before, but he was dead weight now. She allowed his head to lull to his chest and spread her hands over that powerful expanse, searching for the steady triple beat of his heart. Several long second, an eternity, passed and then she felt it, there just to the left of his breastbone. It was slow, weak and fading away just as his life force was.

“No,” she pleaded with his still form. “Don't you _dare_ die on me! Not now! Not when I finally understand what you _mean_ to me!”

“I hear someone needs a doc....Oh My God, what is _that_?!” Dr. Sato interrupted himself when his eyes found his patient. Brendon had warned him the 'man' in need was unusual. What he had failed to mention was that his patient might very well need a veterinarian instead of a medical doctor. His mind was still wrapping around the obvious differences when he noted all the blood and the gravity of the wound. His professional side taking over, he knelt down beside his rather large patient. Human, animal or whatever his basic anatomy was all very similar.

“What do you need, Doctor? Name it and I will make it happen.” Xanatos said coming up along side Dr. Sato. He had not gone far, but he had failed to track Thailog down. They all had, but the steel clan was still out there...searching. David had been the first one back, but the others were not far behind him.

“Hot water, antiseptic,......a surgical bay.....,” Sato began the list in a tone that said he was likely to get none of those things.

“Done. There's clinic a few floors down. It's stocked with everything you'll need and more.” Xanatos said and ignored the odd looks he received for it.

“Does it at least include a surgical kit. I'm going to need instruments to clean up the edges of that wound.” Sato asked as he gingerly probed the puncture.

“It does.....,” Xanatos said cautiously.

“We need to move him to this clinic of yours. Any ideas how we do that? This is one very big man or whatever he is.” Sato took in the whole of Goliath even as his professional mind was taking on the task of treating him.

“I will carry him and he be a gargoyle, lad.” Hudson said as he took in the sight. He had seen wounds such as the one that marred Goliath's abdomen on the battlefields of Scotland. They never ended well. He had hoped to never see the likes of such a wound again, especially not on one of his clan. He gauged Goliath's condition from the shallow rise and fall of his chest and the sheer amount of blood that was smeared everywhere. If he was right, the lad was near his end.

Sato moved aside for yet another large gargoyle. Elisa could only watch as Hudson strained and lifted his larger clan leader. She had effectively been pinned under part of his weight. The feeling began to painfully return to her feet as his weight was slowly lifted.

“Och, ye weigh a ton, lad.” Hudson heaved as he motioned for Broadway to grab the unconscious male's feet. “Come on then, we 'aven't much time.”

* * * * *

Somehow, Elisa still was not sure how, they had managed to carry him to Xanatos' clinic. She had had to jog to keep up with their pace. Xanatos suggested she take the time to clean up in one of the bathrooms, but she had refused. She wanted to be there if something happened, if he didn't make it to dawn. Surprisingly, Xanatos left the offer open, saying that she was welcome to stay the day no matter the outcome. That offer she had accepted. She knew some wounds took more than a single day of stone sleep to heal and she suspected that this would be one of them.

Pacing around the luxurious waiting room, she had time to wander why Xanatos had a clinic in his building. It made a certain kind of sense. He had such a vast employee base. _Keep the workers healthy and they will work until they drop_. She was sure that must be his way of thinking on the matter. Right now, she didn't care if he had an entire hospital and an army of doctors at his disposal. All she wanted was to hear that Goliath would be survive until sunrise. It was close. She stopped before one of the large windows and looked out over the eastern sky. That sky was growing lighter by the second. She pulled her hands through her hair wearily, it had escaped the bands and tiara of her costume. Looking down, she realized distantly that she would not be getting the deposit back on the rental. Goliath's blood was drying into it making it feel like stiffened cardboard. _Goliath's blood_ , her heart sank with the thought that she might never see his face again. Hudson had reluctantly told her what happened when a Gargoyle died. He would turn to stone and then crumble to dust at the moment the sun broke over the horizon. The clan would collect the dust for the wind ceremony and say their final goodbyes on the following night. Those were the thoughts making her eyes mist over when she heard the door leading to the exam rooms and surgical bay open.

“Is he alive? Will he make it to sunrise?” Elisa rushed forward bombarding the obviously tired doctor with her most vital questions.

“Thanks to the blood Angela donated, he pulled through surgery. He's resting until this miraculous event you mentioned at sunrise.” the doctor announced, making special note of Angela's contribution to her father's survival. “Only time will tell if he makes it until then. I've done everything I can for him. Now it's up to him.”

Elisa let out a slow breath she had not known she was holding and smiled wanly at the doctor. It was all she could ask for, he still lived. “Can we see him?”

“I would say it's best to let him rest, but given the circumstances and the nature of his.... _clan_ was it?...” the doctor paused, taking in their wings, tails, claws and bone spurs. “....only for a few minutes and just one or two at a time.”

“Go on, Elisa. We'll see him when the sun sets....one way or another,” Brooklyn said, motioning her to follow the doctor.

“Are you sure?” she asked numbly.

“Yeah, he needs you now more than he needs us.” the brick red gargoyle shrugged and tilted his beak toward the door beyond the doctor. Brooklyn had just entered the great hall from his fruitless search for Thailog when he overheard Goliath confess his love for the human female. He wasn't sure what to think of the revelation, but now was not the time to pick it apart.

Elisa hugged him briefly and turned to follow the doctor. Dr. Sato lead her to the recovery room. The bed Goliath was propped up in was huge and she could see why the doctor had not attempted to move it into a more private room. The gargoyle's weight plus that of the bed would have given the doctor the hernia of hernias for sure.

Though still very pale, Goliath looked as if he were no longer on death's doorstep. Some of the color was slowly returning to his face. Elisa wandered how much of that was due to the bag of blood that hung from the I.V. pole near his bed. _Would the blood turn to stone as well with the rising of the sun?_ , the thought swirled lazily around in her mind as she drew nearer the bed. It was gargoyle blood, after all. Her heart skipped a beat when her eyes flowed down over the large swatch of bandages that wrapped around his midsection. It was then that she realized she had been such a fool. She had thrown away everything, she had thrown him away along with the security he had offered her. So what if he was not human. He was far better than most of the human men she had dated. Noble, chivalrous, protective, almost doting in his generosity with her. She had thrown it back in his face with questions and demands of 'normalcy'.

Elisa didn't know how he could even look at her after the cold things she had said to him, let alone still love her. Right now, in this moment, she accepted that love and took his large hand in both of hers as she sat in the lone chair near the bed. Live or die, she would be there with him every step of the way.

* * * * *

Just before dawn, Goliath's eyes slowly fluttered open. He was aware of many things all at once. His middle hurt abominably, there was the thick, metallic scent of blood and dawn was coming. He moved his hand slightly and found the gentle pressure of a pair of human hands lightly gripping it. There was a slight weight on his forearm as well. The weakness of blood loss had sapped his great strength to that of a newly born kitten. Even a hatchling would be stronger than he felt just then. Only his eyes moved to trace the form that pinned his arm to the soft surface beneath him. Black hair fanned out in a tangled mass around the head that was pillowed on his arm. Her hands reflexively squeezed his larger hand in her sleep. A faint smile touched his lips as he flexed a single finger beneath her hands.

Gasping, Elisa sat up and pushed a mass of hair out of her face. She looked around in sleepy confusion for a moment. Her eyes locked on his completely alert an instant later. His gaze was half-lidded, but his eyes followed her every movement. She still wore the costume with a sizable stain of his blood dried into it. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. _It had not been a dream then_ , he thought, _it was real_. Death had nearly claimed him as a trophy while defending her against his clone. She knew what truly lay in his heart of hearts for her. As the humans often said, 'the ball was in her court'.

Elisa smiled at him and brushed a stray strand of hair from his face, “Hey, big guy...”

He wanted to speak, but found that he could not. She pressed her fingers to his lips ever so gently with a frown of concern on her face and a decided shushing sound on her lips. In other circumstances, he might have been irritated by the 'shush'. Now, he thought the action was endearing. He frowned slightly when she stepped back out of his reach until he noticed the stirring in his belly, the signal that dawn was only moments away.

“The sun's coming up. Rest easy, big guy. I'll be here when you wake up.” Elisa said softly with a smile on her tired face.

The first rays of the sun drifted in through a window he had not noticed. Stone sleep slithered over him like a ravenous lover and he welcomed it.

* * * * *

Elisa waited several long minutes after sunrise chewing her lip nervously. She had to know for sure that he wasn't going to crumble away to dust, that he had not lost his fight for life just as the sun took him. Five minutes passed, then ten and his stone form remained as solid as it had been the first time she had seen it. She let out a sigh and rubbed the back of her aching neck. He would wake at sunset and if she intended to be here, she needed some sleep. She made her way out into the waiting room to find the others frozen in stone there. They had waited all night. In reality it had only been three or four hours. True to their collective word, they allowed her to stay with their leader during what could have been his final hours.

It took some time, but she made her way to Xanatos' office hoping that his offer of a place to clean up and rest had not been in vain. She could use a shower in the worst way. Tapping on the door, she was surprised when it opened so suddenly. Owen stood on the other side. There was a faint smile on his face and for once, Elisa did not feel that it hid any malice.

“Mr. Xanatos mentioned you might be in need of a place to rest after your...shall we say....exhaustive night.” the majordomo said in something that was not quite his normal oatmeal tone.

“Yeah, he didn't mention I might be needing a change of clothes, did he?” Elisa asked with just a hint of tired sarcasm.

“He did at that. Fox insisted she was a good judge of sizes and retrieved something tasteful. I've taken the liberty of placing the packages in the room that was prepared for you. If you'll follow me, detective.” Owen said with a gestured back down the hall she had come from.

“Yeah, I just bet she did...,” Elisa mumbled under her breath. She didn't like his use of the word tasteful in regards to Fox or her clothing. That woman was known to show a bit too much skin on a regular basis. Elisa's costume was too revealing for her own taste and it only exposed a small section of her midriff. She hated to think what Fox might view as _tasteful_.

“What was that?” Owen asked a little too casually. The smile on his face reminded Elisa too much of the Puck that hid within him.

“Nothing, never mind. I'm just really tired and could use a shower. Your employer's hospitality is greatly appreciated at the moment.” Elisa said in a slightly defensive tone.

“The clan would do anything for you, Miss Maza,” Owen seemed to want to make small talk as he guided her to the room Xanatos had promised. He glanced back at her and continued, “None more than Goliath, as he no doubt proved last night. Anything that is good for the clan is good for Mr. Xanatos. They are the guardians of his son, after all.”

Elisa made no comment. She was too tired to indulge Owen in his need for chatter. The other must have realized she was fairly a walking zombie as he guided her into a large room on the castle level. She prowled the room in curiosity despite her tiredness. A large wooden four poster bed dominated the room. It was draped in lush burgundy bedding. A fireplace, lit and blazing warmth into the room resided several feet from the foot of the bed. Between the two was an overstuffed love seat. Night stands accented the bedroom with lamps that gave off a warm and inviting light in the early dawn hours. The room was the size of her entire apartment and easily accommodated the rest of the furniture she would expect to see in a bedroom without seeming crowded.

“The bathroom is in here, Miss Maza. It is stocked with towels and other necessities. Your packages are on the vanity.” he paused as he handed her a key to the room's massive door. “Rest well and enjoy your stay, Miss Maza.”

Elisa turned the key over in her hands as the majordomo left the room. He closed the door firmly behind him. She turned and looked longingly at the bed. It had been a long night. Sighing, she blew a loose strand of hair out of her face and headed for the bathroom. She had expected something the size of a walk-in closet, but this..... This was easily as big as the livingroom of her apartment. Dozens of packages spilled across the length of the double-wide vanity. Apparently Fox had gone on a small shopping spree in her honor. The towels were easy to find, an open-faced linen closet was set into the wall behind the door. There were a variety of soaps, body washes and shampoos available as well. She grabbed a big white bath sheet and caroused the selection of body wash.

In minutes she had found something she liked and stepped into a shower that would have been big enough for both her and Goliath to move around in. The jets that burst from the wall were startling at first and then turned into a relaxing bliss. She realized she could become spoiled by this very quickly as she let the water wash away the bloody reminder of the night before.

Clean and drying, dressed in a skimpy white camisole and lacy white underwear to match, she flopped onto the bed, and sank in two inches. It felt like expensive memory foam and she slithered over it into the middle of the giant bed. She dropped her head on the pillow and in a matter of seconds she was sound asleep.

* * * * *

Sunset...

Goliath roared awake and the room spun briefly around him. Wincing at the pulling sensation in his midsection, he levered himself into a sitting position and attempted to clear as much of his stone skin away as he could. He was about to pull at the bandages when the doctor who had treated Elisa's gunshot wound made an appearance.

“I see you made it through the day,” he paused, crossing the room. “Let me take a look at that. Your friends suggested that stone hibernation might not repair the damage in one day.”

Dr. Sato made a few snips and clips at strategic points in the dressing and gently pulled it aside. Beneath, the wound was closed and looked several days old. It was not yet ready for the stitches to be removed. If he had to guess, he would say another day in stone would just about do it. “I've never seen anything like it. Your stone sleep is remarkable.”

“Sleep regenerates us...,” Goliath said and felt a moment of deja vu. He had once told Elisa the same thing.

“Well, I don't see any reason to keep you here tonight,” the doctor forestalled the gargoyle when he opened his mouth to speak by holding up a hand. “but absolutely no gliding tonight. Take it easy, I wouldn't recommend any strenuous activity until tomorrow night. I've done some hang-gliding, I understand the dynamics of the stresses you would be putting on that wound.”

A ghost of a smile slid across Goliath's face. This doctor would be a worthy intellectual match with his sharp wit. “I shall take it easy, as you say, Doctor...”

“Oh, pardon my bedside manor, I'm Dr. Jay Sato.” he said and extended his hand. Goliath hesitated over that hand for a moment and the doctor waggled it at him expectantly. “I promise you, I'm way past any weirdness in regards to your _unique_ physique. After all, I was elbow deep in your intestines last night trying to keep them inside rather than all over the floor.”

Goliath grimaced faintly at the thought and took the proffered hand shaking it gingerly. “I am Goliath, leader of the clan of gargoyles you no doubt met last night.”

“So I've heard. Your daughter is a lovely girl with quite the temper. If not for the blood she donated, you wouldn't have made it through surgery.”

Goliath nodded. He had no words for the gift Angela had given him. Blood was the vessel of life and he had spilled much of his across the great hall. He looked around the room with a mixture of curiosity and disappointment as the doctor continued to speak.

“You're quite lucky to be alive, honestly. When I first laid eyes on you, I was sure you needed a veterinarian. After I got a good look at that wound, I was convinced you were going to die anyway so I had to try my hand at saving your life. Besides, that sharp-tongued she-demon of yours would have had my innards as a necklace if I hadn't. Luckily your inner anatomy is virtually identical to human anatomy. Once past your outward form, everything else is....well, human...” Sato finished, his hands spread wide with a smile on his face.

_Human_ , the word struck home and Goliath's attention snapped back to the doctor. A passing thought wandered across his mind; _what would Demona think about them being mostly human on the inside_? The thought enticed a chuckle from him and promptly a wince as the stitches pulled. “I apologize for Angela's behavior...,” he began.

“No, no, it wasn't Angela who nearly snapped my head off when the others hauled you into the clinic. Your detective tried to follow us into surgery. When I told her she'd have to wait with the others, she....well, she made it clear I wouldn't like it if something happened to you at my hands.” the doctor smiled, it was a pinched smile.

“Elisa....,” the name was a wistful sigh.

“Yes, that's her name. Had her as a patient once. I can tell you, she was stubborn then as well. I think that's the only reason she pulled through from that gunshot.” Sato shrugged, “Well, the others will be clawing the door down if they don't hear from you soon. I'd greatly enjoy gaining an understanding of your...people....sometime. I think you could use a friend in the medical field as well.”

“Yes, I suspect we could. I would be honored to count you as a friend.”

* * * * *

When Elisa awoke, the room was black as pitch and unfamiliar. There was a soft purring sound coming from the pillow near her head and she turned to find the lamp. It popped on brightly at a touch and she heard a soft meow. Her eyes adjusted slowly to the light and she saw a young cat perhaps a year old perched on the pillow. It looked so much like Cagney that her heart skipped a beat. The animal stood and stretched luxuriously, all the while still purring. That was when she saw the black tail that looked like a lace stocking had been pulled over it. This must be one of the litter of kittens Cagney had while she had been touring the world on the skiff. It seemed like years ago.

Elisa rooted around the packages that had been left for her. There was a decent variety of sensible clothing in them. True to Fox's more spirited tastes, there was also an interesting selection of underwear in them as well. Fortunately, the other woman had judged Elisa's sizes quite accurately. She tossed a pair of black jeans on the bed along with a deep purple blouse and a barely-there matching set of cream lace under-clothes. Apparently, Fox was heavy into lace, go figure.

Getting dressed, her mind turned to Goliath and his ordeal last night. She knew he must be awake by now. How was his wound? Had sleep healed it completely or was he still in danger as Hudson had suggested? She hoped it was healed enough to ensure he would be able to return to his normal activities in the next night or two.

As she headed down the hall toward the tower, Elisa thought of the moment when she was sure Goliath was going to die in her arms. He had poured his heart out to her. He knew he could say anything to her in that moment and she would listen. They had both known those could have been his last words to her. Thailog had almost taken him from her before she had reconciled with herself what he truly meant to her. She was not about to lose him again.

* * * * *

Once the others had reassured themselves that he was, in fact, alive and not about to break like a china doll, Goliath made his way to his tower. It was nice to take in the sights of the city, to taste the air and feel it against his skin. He had taken much for granted of late. Her scent wafted around him even as his keen ears picked up the sound of her footsteps. There was an edge of fear to the smile that crossed his face in that moment. True, she had told him she loved him last night, but he could not be sure she truly knew the implications of those words. As he lay dying, she might well have offered him the moon if she thought it would stave off the reaper. Now that he was regaining his strength, she could still reject him for her 'normal' life.

He did not turn from his view of the city when she stepped up beside him. Instead he rubbed a taloned hand over his tender middle and steeled his resolve. At last he spoke, “I will not hold you to words spoken in the face of death. I cannot give you the normal life you desire, nor can I give you.... children. All I have to offer is my friendship, my love, if you will have it...”

“Yeah, well,” she sighed as she scooted herself up onto the wall to sit with her back to the city. A dangerous thing for a human to do if they had not had a winged guardian to prevent death from a fall of such a staggering height. “normalcy is so overrated anyway.”

Now he turned his gaze on her. There was an easy smile on her face. She seemed untroubled by the worries that had creased her face so many nights before. Still uncertain he asked, “What are you saying?”

Putting a hand on his arm she rubbed her fingers over the massive muscles. The skin was leathery, but not rough, more like taut suede. Her smile deepened as her eyes locked with his. He could see the love in them, the longing, the hope, but he feared to acknowledge it. He waited for her answer instead. It came several agonizing moments later.

“I'm saying I can't deny what you mean to me anymore. I was an idiot, can you forgive me?” she glanced over her shoulder at the city below then met his eyes again.

“There is nothing to forgive, my Elisa. You must follow your heart.” Goliath didn't trust his voice not to quaver so he kept it very low, but he knew she heard him.

“Good, I'd hoped you'd feel that way,” she said as she scooted over in front of him. The stone wall put her at a level to more easily reach him. Her kiss, as unexpected as the first, was returned this time.

Hesitantly he allowed her to deepen the kiss. He thought he could get used to her human kisses. This was something gargoyles rarely practiced themselves, but he had seen Angela and Broadway share such tender moments. His arms, seemingly of their own accord, snaked around her. In the back of his mind, he told himself it was because she could fall and he could not glide down to catch her this night. His heart knew it was from a desire to be near her. He would hungrily take anything she was willing to give of herself. She stirred a passion within him he thought long dead.

Elisa broke the kiss breathlessly and leaned her head against his broad chest. Her voice was soft and husky when she asked, “So, where do we go from here?”

“Anywhere you wish, my love,” Goliath rumbled, still not sure of his voice. He hesitated only a moment, “but can it wait until tomorrow night? The doctor does not wish me to glide until he is sure the wound has properly healed.”

“I didn't mean to literally go anywhere...,” she started to say, glancing down at the healing wound. When she looked back up at his face, there was a sly kind of smile on it. He was developing quite the sense of humor even though it was clear he was in pain.

As the pair affirmed their love and talked of happier times to come, they were unaware of the blazing red eyes that watched them from the darkness....


	2. Stirrings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of Rosebud1773 (R.A.Lyon).
> 
> After Goliath is nearly killed by his psychotic clone, Elisa realizes just what he means to her. As the couple reconcile their relationship a sinister force plots to reign destruction upon the world.

A creature of pure chaos watched the couple with a deep loathing in her heart. Once she had been a trusted member of the clan, their second, a fierce warrior in her own right. Now, her heart was corrupt, filled with such hatred that she longed for the destruction of the human race, a race she felt was little more than vermin. Of all the humans in the world, there was none she hated more than Elisa Maza. That human had effectively taken her place. She had corrupted Goliath's heart, made him weak. Now the human pawed at him. Goliath was her mate, had been for a millennium and she would not release him easily. They may not have been officially mated before the clan by the elders, but for all intents and purposes, Goliath had been Demona's mate. They had produced an egg together, a daughter she had come to know as Angela. It did not matter to her that he had slept in stone for the better part of that millennium. Nor did it matter that she had taken other mates over the centuries. He was the father of her only child. True, she did not love him. How could she when he had proven time and time again that he was a weak-minded fool? She had lusted after him and taken him as the breeding stock he was. Now, as she watched the Maza woman cling to him, she decided she would not allow his human whore to defile him. She bit back the hiss that threatened to spill forth from her lips. If Elisa had been a gargoyle it would be Demona's right to call for the Mating Challenge. She wanted blood for this betrayal. Goliath was betraying not only her, but their entire race.

She clung to a thin ledge one level down against a wall that was deeply in shadow. Her intention this night had been to collect something valuable and possibly to catch her daughter alone. There was a great deal she wished to speak with her about. Perhaps she could have lured the girl to a secluded place. Now she fought down her unrelenting rage as she watched the couple. It took an act of iron will to resist the urge to step forth from the shadows and rip the human's still beating heart from her chest.

Demona's eyes suddenly widened and the red faded from them as a horrifying thought struck her. What if Goliath succeeded in breeding the human? Was such a thing even possible? A shudder of fear ran from her brow to the very tip of her tail at the thought of the abomination that might result of such a mating. She was certain such a whelp could only be sustained through science or sorcery, perhaps only through a combination of the two, but even still...

Pushing herself deeper into the shadows, Demona thought back on her research over the centuries. She had uncovered bits and pieces of legend and prophecy from a multitude of sources. One such legend spoke of a Great Dragon, the Great Dragon, and her love of the humans. She knew the legend far better than any other living gargoyle could claim to. A millennium of reading and delving into the magical arts had left her with a vast knowledge of many different cultures.

_And so great was Her love for her human charges that Dracona began to see them for what they would one day become. Her love for one male was so great that she longed for him through her nights. Finally, she came to him in human guise. It was as a dream to the man, for he so loved the Great Dragon in all Her beauty. He was presented many times with a choice of mates, yet he refused to take a human mate. He claimed that none could take the Great Dragon's place in his heart._

_So enchanted by this human was Dracona that she, in her great wisdom, made a fateful choice. She took him as her mate. In the fullness of time, she, who's life was eternal, watched him wither with age and die. So terrible was her grief that she summoned the Reaper of Souls to her layer. There she struck a deal with him; if he would allow her to birth her human mate's children, she would surrender her life to Death when they came of age. The Reaper, ever eager to harvest an immortal, agreed to the deal. Of course, there was a catch. Those children would not be dragons, but neither would they be human. They would forever dwell between two worlds._

_  
_

The Great Dragon had conditions of her own, however. She would watch over her children from the heavens. One day, she would reclaim her place among them for good or for ill.

So it was that the shade of Dracona's mate was allowed to return to her for one more night. Together, they conceived the children the Great Dragon longed for.

_In half a year's time She laid four eggs and curled around them until they hatched. Those eggs gave rise to the gargoyle race and were forever after sworn to protect the humans that their great mother so loved. It was the purpose their mother instilled in them before she allowed her soul to be released to the Reaper. She claimed a place in the heavens, among the stars to watch over her progeny for all time._

There was a prophecy Demona had pieced together over the centuries that mentioned the offspring of a gargoyle and a human. A gargoyle, not a dragon. That meant one of her own race. The scrolls were worn and crumbling, much of the text was incomplete, but she suspected it ultimately meant the end of her species. Even if it meant some sort of evolution, she wanted none of it. She hated the very idea that the humans might be half responsible for the rise of her own mighty race, a far superior race, to be sure.

As she watched with an ever growing hatred, she feared she might be witnessing the pair who would spell the end of her people as she knew them. Her Goliath and his little pet human might be all their undoing. Demona was not about to stand by and do nothing while he defiled their bloodlines. She had to do something, but it would take time to plan. From the little she had overheard, the pair had not yet consummated their ill-begotten union. She need only delay them until she could dispose of humanity once and for all.

Goliath may have destroyed the praying gargoyle statue during the hunter's moon and prevented her from 'disinfecting' the planet, but she had not survived more than a thousand years without learning from her mistakes. She always had a contingency plan. Such a plan needed time to implement, but what else did an immortal have other than vast amounts of time....

* * * *

Elisa squirmed in Goliath's arms and glanced behind her with a sudden sense of dread. She could have sworn she caught a glimpse of glowing red eyes in the shadows off to her left. It had only been there for the briefest of instances. Her eyes must be playing tricks on her. It would not surprise her with all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. She needed more rest, for sure. Her nerves were still coiled like a tightly compressed spring.

“Is something wrong, Elisa?” Goliath asked quietly. He had noticed her body tense up as she glanced around nervously.

“I don't know...,” she admitted, a shiver passing through her as a decidedly cold breeze swirled around her. “Ever feel like you're being watched?”

“This castle is old and harbors many shadows. Even still,” Goliath paused to glance at one of the many security cameras that littered the exterior of his home. “Xanatos has eyes all over the castle. Perhaps that is why you feel as though we are being watched.”

“Maybe, but I'd feel better if we weren't out in the open just now. Something doesn't feel right...,” Elisa half grumbled as she scooted off her perch. The security of the stone floor beneath her feet did very little to relieve her rising anxiety.

Glancing out across the horizon, Goliath realized dawn was not far off. He absently ran a talon over the healing wound. Another day, perhaps two in stone sleep and he would back to normal. Most of his wounds healed in one day's time, but then he had never had a wound quite like this one. His mentor, Hudson, had warned him many times that such wounds were possible. He would be glad when it finally disappeared. _Would it leave a scar_?, he wandered. It was possible, he knew that from the scar over Hudson's eye.

Moving along with Elisa, he cast his gaze across the night enshrouded parapets. There were any number of places someone might hide. They could very well have a watcher. Surely it was not one of the clan. He did not believe any of them could invoke such a feeling of unease in Elisa. He was certain they were still off searching for Thialog, but he knew they would be returning soon. His 'son' or, 'evil twin' as Elisa called him, had kidnapped Delilah and disappeared along with Fang and two of the clones from the labyrinth. There was no telling what he might be doing to the gargess. Goliath's mind shied away from that train of thought as he guided Elisa into the castle.

Demona crossed his mind just as he stepped inside and he glanced back one last time. His tail gave an annoyed twitch, thumping on the dusty stone steps. As an afterthought, he grabbed the heavy wood of the trapdoor and firmly closed it behind them.

“What was that about?” Elisa asked trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice and failing.

“Just a precaution. There are many I could think of who would wish us harm, but few brave enough to spy on us. Fewer still capable of doing so from such height without notice.” his mind was spiraling down to one person and he did not like the implications.

“You don't think it's Demona....,” Elisa all but took the very thought from his mind.

Goliath eyed her in awe for half a heartbeat. There was that uncanny knack for knowing his deepest thoughts again. The more time he spent with her, the more he was convinced there was something very special about her. It was more than his love her for. He had noticed it long before his feelings had evolved beyond respect. “Perhaps.” was all the answer he had for her as they continued deeper into the castle.

“I don't like it. First Thailog shows up, nearly kills you and takes off with Delilah... Now this weird feeling of being watched. I feel like the other shoe's about to drop.” Elisa's frustration rang loud and clear in her voice.

Goliath nodded thoughtfully as they stopped before a large wooden door. Elisa slipped a key from her pocket and unlocked it. He frowned as she pushed the door open. This was not the room he would have chosen for their 'nest'. It troubled him that it was at the heart of the castle's upper floors. The window was small and had no access to a balcony. The ceiling was too low to comfortably accommodate his wings in their upright position. He would be forced to keep them caped at all times here. It felt cramped to him.

Xanatos had offered him his choice of any of the castle's empty rooms he wished, but he had turned the man down a number of times. He had felt no need to acquire a 'nesting room', as he saw it. Now, perhaps, he might take the man up on the offer. As he watched Elisa step into the room, he thought he might have need of such a place. She would desire privacy if she were to stay in the castle with him. He knew she would be reluctant to move in under the billionaire's watchful eye, but he could think of no safer place for her to be. The thought trailed off as she took his hand and encouraged him to enter the room.

“I have to work tomorrow,” Elisa groaned as she stumbled toward the bed. “I just hope Chavez backs off on the undercover case she wants me to take.”

“Was that the reason you tossed your phone into the fountain?” the big lavender gargoyle asked as he gently closed the door and stood stiffly near it.

Elisa chuckled and there was a sparkle in her eyes when she answered, “Yeah, she's got this big drug ring she's been trying to bust all year. Someone tipped her off about their recent activities and she's trying to organize an undercover unit to infiltrate them. It could be a long assignment.”

“And wrought with dangers, no doubt.” he commented, his voice deliberately low so as not to carry the anxiety he was beginning to feel.

“I wouldn't be able to visit if I took the assignment. Too much risk of blowing my cover.” she shook her head, her hair dancing around her shoulders and stepped up to him. Rubbing a hand over his large pectoral, she smiled up at him. “I'm not taking the assignment unless she orders me to. I'm not ready to step away from this, from us, just yet.”

Goliath understood all too well what she meant as his gaze locked with hers. They had only just begun to explore the new elements of their relationship. He worried that she might have second thoughts should they be separated for too long a time. Yet he was not ready for what she hinted at. He worried about their more physical compatibility.

“You should rest, my love. It is not long until dawn.” he started to reach for the door. His resolve to wait until he had done some research into human mating practices nearly in tatters.

Elisa realized he was going to leave and reached out, grabbing his hand. “Stay... At least until I fall asleep. My nerves are still on edge.”

“Elisa...,” he drew her name out in a warning sigh, cocking his head ever so slightly sideways at her. He feared his desire for her would overcome him.

She knew the look, she had seen it many times in the past. It was a mixture of agitation, desire and perhaps fear of hurting her that caused him to resist. Stubborn woman that she was, she refused to take no for an answer. Of course, she was too tired to seduce him if that was what worried him. She merely wanted his company, his protection. He was her greatest comfort when her nerves were like this. She gave him a look she knew he could not refuse and saw him relax a little.

“Very well.” he said quietly as she drew him to the bed.

Goliath stopped just short of the bed. He would not follow her into it no matter how reinforced it might be. His reluctance had nothing to do with the bed itself and everything to do with his own concerns. He was afraid. Afraid in a way he had never known. With Demona there had been little fear of the unknown before their first mating. With Elisa, he feared he would bring her great harm. He was so much larger and heavier than she. There were other questions as well, but he was reluctant to examine them just now. Instead, he ran a talon ever so delicately through her hair and over her cheek as she settled herself into the bed.

* * * *

Elisa eyed him with open hunger, wandering for the millionth time what he hid beneath that loincloth. Perhaps, in a few nights, she might find out. The thought both excited her and commanded a faint edge of fear. _What if we're not physically compatible_ , she wandered, _what then_? She realized, in the next moment, when he ran a talon ever so gently down her cheek, that it did not matter. They would find a way to make it work even if sex, in its more traditional form, was beyond their reach.

Settling into the huge bed, she wished he would join her. She longed for the comfort of his wings and arms around her to stave off the chill that was stealing over her. Those eyes boring into her outside had nearly unhinged her already overtaxed nerves. Sleep would not come easily even with the big guy's presence.

* * * *

Goliath watched over her as she drifted off into an uneasy slumber. He had done so many times on the skiff during their Avalon Tour. A memory came unbidden then and he relived it reluctantly...

It had been shortly after their trip to Ireland when the skiff had bumped its way along a beach. Exhausted, they had pulled the boat up on the sand. Food, fresh water and shelter, those were the priorities. They hoped to remain where they were for a couple of days before moving on. The two gargoyles knew their human companion needed time to recover from the ordeal in the peat-bog.

Goliath did not wish to offend Elisa, but he was sure that if he had to endure one more night of the horrible stench of the bog rolling off her, he might be forced to do something drastic. He entertained the thought of throwing himself overboard with her in his arms and scrubbing her thoroughly. When the island evolved from Avalon's mists, he had barely resisted the urge to put the rope between his teeth and drag them through the water to it. The island had an abundant growth of trees, and where there were trees, there was bound to be fresh water. They could collect drinking water. Perhaps more importantly, to his devastated nose, Elisa would be able to bathe.

Grinding the skiff into the sand, he suggested the women find fresh water while he secured the skiff and looked for shelter. He did not worry about their safety. Bronx would be with them and Angela was proving a capable warrior. It came naturally, he knew, but he did not like to think of the source. Once he was certain the skiff was not going to drift away with the tide, he turned his attention to finding shelter.

Angela and Elisa found a large pond of crystal clear water not far from the beach. Elisa sighed in delight as she stared at the water gleaming in the moonlight. They gathered drinking water in plastic bottles they had scavenged from a couple of their stops. When they had taken their fill, Elisa stripped off her peat-soaked clothes, right down to her skin. An instant later, she seemed to slither into the water. When her head emerged, Angela told her she was taking the bottles back to the skiff.

Goliath was still seeking shelter when he happened upon the pond and its occupant. She stood knee deep with her back to him carefully washing herself. The moonlight shone softly on her naked flesh and he found he could not take his eyes off her. She turned to face him, to face the bank, in truth and the entirety of her body was exposed to him. He was still concealed in the underbrush. In the instant that he beheld her glistening beauty, he took an involuntary step forward. A twig snapped and the underbrush gave way.

Elisa gasped, frozen like a doe caught in headlights as Goliath emerged from the bushes that ringed the pond. Her hands were on her scalp, her entire body uncovered before him. There was a mixture of emotions playing across his chiseled features: longing, desire and admiration chief among them. A part of her was terrified he might rush forward and take her. Another part of her willed him to do just that. Terror won out and she covered her breasts with one arm, her nether region with the other hand and promptly dipped down in the water.

“Elisa......I am.....sorry,” Goliath's voice betrayed his desire with the faint undertone of a growl. He seemed to come to his sense and turned his back hastily. A moment later he disappeared into the woods, running from the sight of her, running from what his instincts screamed he should do.

There had been other instances, similar in nature, but that one was the first. It was the most shocking as he had never dreamed he might see so much of her. He realized then that one could not live for months on a tiny boat without making discoveries about their companions. Avalon had sent them where they needed to be for him to make one such discovery. She had been a glorious sight.

* * * *

Goliath quietly left the room as soon as Elisa had rolled over in her sleep. Dawn was coming and he wanted to take his daytime place among his clan. He emerged into the pre-dawn light wandering what research materials he might find on human mating in the library the following evening.

It had begun to snow in earnest when the others wandered out onto the parapets. They began taking their daytime positions when Hudson placed a hand on Goliath's shoulder. There was a knowing smile on the old warrior's face that seemed to erase some of his long years.

“So, lad, ye goin' to be making Elisa yer mate? Officially?” Hudson came straight to the point, as he often did. He saw the concerned look the younger male spread across their clan. “Aye, the others know how 'tis 'tween ye. They trust yer judgment.”

“They do not disapprove....? Nor you?” Goliath asked in a low voice.

“Nay, they love Elisa. She be like a rookery sister to 'em.” Hudson paused for a long moment. He stroked his thick beard as he eyed the other male thoughtfully with his good eye. After several long moments he continued, “Elisa be like me own rookery daughter. Human tho' she be, I see nothin' wrong with the love ye an' she share. It gives ye strength.... It gives an ol' warrior, such as meself, hope....for the future..” With that, he leaped over the half-wall with a pained grunt.

Goliath watched Hudson glide down to his daytime position as the last words echoed in his mind. Of all his clan, he had thought the eldest might be the one to disapprove of their love. Instead, he seemed to be encouraging a possible union between them. He realized, just before the first rays of the weak sun took him, that he had much to consider.

* * * *

Elisa awoke early in the afternoon. She was alone, save for the purring bundle of fur who reminded her so much of Cagney. Goliath must have returned to his tower shortly before dawn. There was a light rap on the door and a muffled female voice came from the other side. She rolled out of bed reluctantly and realized she must have slithered out of her jeans sometime in the night. It was so unlike her to sleep in her clothes, but she had not quite been ready to tempt Goliath by stripping down in front of him. He needed another day of stone sleep to heal that wound before she would even consider it.

The knock came again, “Elisa, are you here?”

Swaying to her feet, she crossed the room and opened the door. Fox stood there with a concerned look on her face. The look gave Elisa a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. “What's wrong?”

“David was reviewing some security footage and spotted something we think you should see.” Fox said as the other woman eyed her suspiciously.

“Ok, give me a minute and I'll be ready.” Elisa wasted no time in grabbing her discarded jeans and squirming into them.

In a matter of moments she and Fox were hurrying down the hall to the surveillance room. As they entered the room, David Xanatos glanced up from the console. His usual conceited sneer was replaced by a look of deep concern. He glanced back at the footage he was running and keyed something in. The video froze. He beckoned Elisa to join him before the monitor. “Come, Detective, you need to see this.”

Elisa closed the gap and looked at the monitor. Xanatos tapped a few keys and the video began to run in slow motion. She could clearly see a darker shadow against a wall of shadow not far from the place she and Goliath had occupied the night before. The camera remained focused as they moved out of its range. The hint of glowing red eyes was clearly captured as the figure shifted, lingered for a moment, then took to the air. It was a very distinctive gargoyle shape.

“Demona...,” Elisa all but growled the name. “So she _was_ here last night. I knew I wasn't going crazy.”

“It appears she was looking for something. She doesn't look too happy to find you and Goliath getting cozy.” Xanatos said with a smirk.

If her eyes could blaze like a gargoyle's, Elisa's would have at his comment. She hated it when he snooped around too much in her business. The video evidence did not help to put her mind at ease. Instead, it increased her anxiety, but at least now she knew there really had been eyes boring into her. And she knew who's eyes they had been. Goliath would not be pleased to hear that his ex was skulking around the castle.

“She's up to something. It has to be connected to Thailog's appearance at the party the other night.” Elisa's mind was chewing away at the details in true detective fashion.

“Possibly,” Xanatos pulled up another video and allowed it to play at normal speed. “I think she may have been looking for Angela. There are a number of videos that indicate the possibility.”

As one of the videos in question played, she could clearly see Angela and Demona departing together. Maybe she was just looking to talk to her daughter, but that did not stop Elisa from suspecting more. The whole thing was too coincidental for her taste and she didn't believe in coincidences. A good detective never took things at face value. There were always more layers, more than met the eye and she was determined to dig through those layers to the bottom.

“Whatever she was after, she must have gotten it. Why else would she leave so quickly?” Fox commented into the momentary silence.

“Run that first video again....,” Elisa said thoughtfully as she leaned down to get a closer look at the image on the monitor. As Xanatos did so, she looked for anything they might have missed. “There!”

The video halted and Fox joined them in staring at the screen. “What's she doing?”

“I don't remember that panel being in the original floor plan.” Xanatos said with a touch of intrigue on his Grecian face. He ran the video back and they watched for several moments.

The image of Demona on the screen shifted as soon as the couple was clear of the video frame. She obviously had no idea she was being recorded as she twisted around in her place on the near razor-thin ledge. She pushed in on one small block and a faint click could be heard. Seconds later the block receded and a small opening could be seen. The gargess removed something from the cavity and launched herself into the night.

“I think we better have a look at that hide-hole. There might be some clue as to what was in there.” Elisa said in a tone that brooked no argument. To her surprise the other two agreed. They did not seem comfortable with the idea that Demona might still be hiding things away in the walls of their home.

* * * *

The nook had revealed very little about what had been stored within. Aside from a few crumbling scraps of parchment and a dusting of old stone, there was really no way of telling what Demona had taken. Elisa tried not to worry about it as work dragged on. Chavez was still dogging her to take the undercover assignment. They had a window of opportunity, she had said. Elisa stood a good chance at getting that elusive promotion, she had poked. It would mean a pay raise, she had prodded. When none of it worked she finally sat the woman down and had a long, exhaustive talk with her.

“Look, Elisa, I know you and this mystery man of yours are having relationship problems,” Maria Chavez had tossed subtly out the window.

 _“Captain_..!” there was an indignant tone to Elisa's voice.

“Huh-uh, everybody in the station knows there's a guy in your life. Nobody mopes around like you have without it being something to do with matters of the heart. This assignment might be good for both of you, give you some breathing room, maybe a chance to sort things out, clear your heads. Think about it at least.”

“If there was someone, and I'm _not_ saying there _is_ , the last thing we need is more time apart.” Elisa railed against the idea.

Maria put her hands down on her desk flatly trying to prepare for the storm she knew was about to come. “Ok, fine, Maza. You leave me no choice. Either you take this assignment or I take you gun and badge.”

“ _What_?!” Elisa was shocked by the ultimatum.

“Internal Affairs has been investigating our precinct for over a month, Maza. They don't care much for the Gargoyles Task Force. Some of them think it might be encouraging vigilante sympathizers. Some view the gargoyles as vigilantes. Personally, I don't know what to think about this gargoyle business. Are they real? Are they just a bunch of punks dressed up in Halloween costumes? Who knows. The point is, they have been looking into everybody's files, especially yours.”

“What are you getting at? Am I in trouble with the higher ups?” Elisa snapped, still smarting over the captain's ultimatum.

“With the amount of time you took off last year and the obvious outside help you had closing some of those bigger cases..... I honestly don't know. They think you're involved with the gargoyles somehow. They want them reigned in.” the captain pointed out.

“Reigned in....how?” Elisa asked despite the roiling pit of lava developing in her belly.

Chavez sighed in frustration and stood, beginning to pace her office. Finally, she turned a frosty gaze on Elisa. “You've been seen with them, Elisa. Are they working with you? Do you know how to reach them? If so, I need to know.”

Elisa started to deny any knowledge of them until she remembered there was video footage of her hugging Goliath the night the hunters had been arrested. Very slowly, she sat down in one of the chairs facing the captain's desk. She realized she had no choice. Her secret had to be revealed to Chavez if she wanted to keep her job.

“They aren't vigilantes,” she started quietly, a bitter taste in her mouth. The other woman sat down, folding her hands on her desk and waited.

Elisa explained how she had met them, what they were and why they did the things they did. She left out some of the more delicate details. Better if Chavez did not know everything. She did, however, make it very clear that they were strictly nocturnal. She finished with a question of her own. “So now what?”

“If they're 'people'...like us in some way, they are subject to the law. Elisa, they can't keep going around helping you unofficially. The city needs to feel safe and right now, most of the population doesn't.” Chavez ran a hand over her eyes. She looked tired and seemed to be struggling to believe the story she had just heard. Finally she just blurted out what she needed to say. “The higher ups want the gargoyles, if they exist, to be officially attached to the department. You are to be their liaison, attached to TGF, but I need to meet them before it can be made official.”

The detective gaped at the captain. This was not at all what she had expected. For several long moments she could not find her voice. When she did, it was barely more than a hoarse whisper. “What about the undercover case?”

“Oh, you're still going. You're the best cop I've got for the case, but you'll be taking your own 'backup'.” Chavez smiled and Elisa realized that the other woman had been galling her about 'time apart' in order to gauge how strongly she was connected to the clan.

“We'll meet you on the roof across the street after my shift.” there was still mild protest in her voice, but Elisa knew she had been bested.

* * * *

“This might be the best thing to happen to you since gargoyles were exposed as reality to the world.” Elisa was saying as Goliath carried her to their destination. He still wore a sour expression. The others followed at a comfortable distance.

“I still do not see the need for all this.... _red tape_ , as you call it.” he grumbled, his right wing shifting a fraction to catch a change in air currents. They were nearing the roof across from the station.

“Captain Chavez has been running interference for me for a couple of years now. She convinced the mayor The Gargoyles Task Force was his idea. Internal Affairs is sniffing around and threatening both our jobs, maybe even our freedom if we don't make the clan's police connections official.” Elisa had explained it until she felt she might turn as purple as Goliath looked in the dark. She still felt guilty for making the decision for them, but at least Goliath had not been unreasonable.

The rooftop rushed up to meet them and Elisa experienced a thrill as her lavender guardian suddenly snapped his wings forward. Their descent slowed and he touched down with a graceful yet heavy thump. The others followed with their own lesser thumps and scanned the rooftop for any sign of trouble. They fanned out, functioning like a well oiled machine in their precision. As soon as they were sure the rooftop was secure, they took up hidden positions and waited for Chavez to show.

They did not have long to wait as the slender woman stepped out the only door leading in or out of the top floor of the building. Goliath had felt it would be better for her to meet him first and the rest shortly after. He did not wish to frighten the woman out of her wits. They had learned the hard way that introducing them all at once was not always the best course. In fact, he mused with a faint smile, introducing himself alone had caused Elisa to stumble and fall off a building.

Goliath set Elisa gently down on her feet as the police captain cautiously approached them. There were a few lights scattered around the roof and she headed for one of them. She wanted to see these things in as much light as possible. Stopping in a ring of light, she waited for Elisa and her giant companion to get the hint. She swallowed hard, her eyes scanning him from head to toe and back again as he stepped into the circle of light beside the detective.

“My god!” Chavez exclaimed, taking in the sight of wings, tail, talons and bone spurs. “He's huge! Elisa, is he.....?”

“Captain Maria Chavez, this is Goliath, leader of the Manhattan Clan.” Elisa looked up at the big gargoyle and continued. “Goliath, this is my boss.”

Chavez watched them as any good cop would. She noted the way Elisa looked at him. The way the gargoyle looked at her in return. _Was that love in their eyes? Could this giant purple creature be the 'boyfriend'_? She stared in shock for several moments.

“It is an honor to finally meet you, Captain Chavez.” Goliath said, extending a hand the size of a ham.

The captain looked at the hand, studying it and mentally comparing it to her own human hand. Three fingers and an opposable thumb, each tipped with a deadly looking talon. She hesitated only a moment before taking the proffered hand. He gingerly shook and released hers, never once making her feel as if he meant any harm. She relaxed a fraction. Looking into his eyes, she realized there was an intelligence behind them that rivaled many humans she could name. _And that voice_ , she thought, _Good lord, he could melt the ice queen herself, Margot Yale, with that_.

Next she was introduced to the others, one at a time. They were all different sizes and colors, some with hair, some without, but each impressed her with human-like intellect. She began to understand why Elisa spent so much time around them. They were fascinating. The one called Hudson intrigued her more than the others. Older, wiser, he seemed to carry himself with the same dignity a retired military officer would. He seemed amused by her curiosity.

“Elisa tells me you wish to officially attach us to the police department. What exactly would that mean for my clan?” Goliath cut right to the chase.

“You don't waste any time, do you?” she asked.

“Not when the safety of my clan is at stake.” he rumbled.

“Officially, you would be on-call if the department needs some serious muscle. Only at night, of course. Detective Maza mentioned your nocturnal preferences.” she paused to allow them to digest what she was offering. “Unofficially, you would continue to help Maza in whatever capacity you currently do now. I am curious, why only at night?”

“What's the catch,” Brooklyn spoke up for the first time.

“Well, you would have to make an appearance at the station, be officially sworn in as honorary officers. Photos need to be taken to register I.D. badges. Of course, when the press gets a hold of gargoyles working for the NYPD in an official capacity, there very likely could be a news conference. At least one of you will need to be present for that to release a statement.”

“Sounds like a lot of public relations, maybe good for the clan. I think I like the sound of this.” Brooklyn nodded then looked to his leader. “What do you think, Goliath? Should we go along with this?”

Chavez watched the one called Goliath as he looked to each of his clan. There were nods all around. His gaze stopped on Hudson as the elder was stroking his beard in deep thought.

“'tis a fine offer, lass, but how do we know da rest o' yer officers will honor it?” Hudson addressed Chavez directly in a deep Scottish brogue.

“They're cops. They all swore an oath to protect and serve. They'll honor this or I'll have every last one of their badges.” Chavez reassured him.

“What say ye, lad? 'tis yer choice to be makin'.” Hudson deferred to his leader.

“You know what this could mean, Goliath. We would be accepted by the humans, at least some of them. It could be a way to finally end the hate the Quarrymen stirred up.” the little one, Chavez thought his name was Lexington, said excitedly.

“Yes...,” the big one drew out the word and returned his attention to the captain. He seemed to weigh the options for several long moments then finally delivered his answer. “We will accept this arrangement, for a time. Let us hope that it proves beneficial to all concerned.”

“Great, Monday night we'll begin formal introductions at the station. I'll make arrangements to have our photographer on hand to make those I.D.'s. The following night, you,” Chavez pointed first at Elisa and then at Goliath, “go undercover for the foreseeable future.....and take him with you. I can't have you moping around like a lovesick kid on this case.”

Goliath mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, the lavender tone of his face deepening.

Chavez glared up at him, “It's pretty obvious by the way you two are ogling each other that you are the 'boyfriend' she's been hiding from the world. The least she could have done was to introduce me to you sooner. And don't either of you give me that innocent look. I've raised kids and been a cop too many years not to notice.”

Elisa and Goliath both stared at her in shock with just a touch of anxiety. Neither had ever suspected that the woman might see through their carefully hidden feelings.

Hudson was chuckling and stroking his beard hard enough that Chavez thought it might fall out. She switched gears and turned her glare on the older gargoyle, “What's so funny over there, fuzzy?”

It was Goliath's turn to chuckle as Hudson froze in mid-stroke, his mouth falling open as he faced this suddenly formidable female. Only moments ago, she had been nearly terrified of them all. Now she treated them as her subordinates with all the tolerance and respect she would offer her human colleagues.

Hudson spluttered, searching for something to say and came up with nothing.

“I never thought I'd be saying this, but I like the lot of you. I can't see how any of you were labeled vigilantes. I'd like to get to know you all better,” she stepped over to Hudson and with the glint of mischief in her eyes, waggled her index finger in the tip of his beard, “especially you. You look old enough to have some very interesting history stored in that craggy head.”

Elisa stared at the woman as if the other had been replaced by an alien. She had never seen her act so boldly toward anyone other than her late husband. _Maybe_ , she thought, _the captain is lonely_. Hudson was, in personality, quite a lot like Martin. That had to be it. There was also the information she was hoping to dig out of him.

* * * *

Upon their return to the castle, they realized that getting to the bottom of Demona's scheming would have to wait. They were now obligated to the police force. Goliath would be going with Elisa for the undercover assignment. The others would focus on putting a stop to Demona's terrorism. This time, things might go easier on them all. They would have the police force on their side instead of chasing them like rabid dogs.

Elisa wandered off to collect some things from the room she had used the last couple of days. She needed to get back to her apartment, check on things and pack some essentials for the road. There would be plenty of clothing and paperwork to suit her new identity in the safehouse they were being set up in, she knew. The detective had always hated it when the 'guys' picked out under-clothes for these missions. They tended to find the skimpiest, most uncomfortable things they could find.

Insisting on going by car this time, she realized she had too many things to carry with her for Goliath to fly her home. It was just as well, he and the clan needed time to discuss the new developments with the NYPD and their role in it. They needed to decide how they were going to handle the situation with Demona as well.

* * * *

Once Elisa had left, Goliath, loathe to do so, had gone to Xanatos about the room he had offered.

“Of course, as I've said, this castle is your home. As its owner, you're entitled to any of the empty rooms you wish.” Xanatos stated as he sat behind his desk.

“Owner?” Goliath questioned.

“Ah,” Xanatos exhaled sharply. “Did I forget to mention I had a deed for the castle itself drawn up under the name of one Gordon Owen Lyath? I'm sure the irony of the name won't be lost.”

“Who is this Gordon Owen Lyath?” Goliath asked suspiciously, his eyes narrowing.

“It's the human name Owen and I tossed together for your legal assets. Puck thought it would be great fun to add his alter-ego's name just to see if it rubbed you the wrong way. At a guess, I'd say it did. I lost the bet.”

Goliath grumbled something under his breath, but made sure the human could not understand it. Stunned by the billionaire's words, he could not believe that the man had gone so far as to make him the owner of Castle Wyvern. He had never owned anything beyond his clothing. It was overwhelming to realized Xanatos could never again force the clan out of their ancestral home.

“So, what room do you want? I'll make sure Owen gives you a catalog to decorate it however you wish. I'll gladly foot the bill.” Xanatos was saying as he came around the desk.

Goliath nodded and then struggled with himself to find the words to ask the next thing he needed of the man before him. “I have one other favor to ask....”

“Name it,” Xanatos said and thought better of clapping the gargoyle on the shoulder. He knew that would only rouse the male's suspicion. That was the last thing he wanted.

“The library lacks a selection of.....certain materials.....,” Goliath did not know how to tell the human exactly what he needed. The expression on his face must have spoken loud and clear of his discomfort.

Xanatos was no fool. He suspected the type of material Goliath was hinting at. The detective and the gargoyle were undoubtedly moving into uncharted territory with their relationship. _At least one of them should have a road map_ , he thought. “Done, I'll personally make sure you have a ready supply of video material in the media room nearest the room you choose.”

Goliath's eyes widened then narrowed briefly as it struck him that the human had deduced what he was trying to say. He felt a rush of embarrassment, but only for a moment. He nodded and took his leave of the man.

* * * *

By the following night, Goliath had chosen his room. He sat cross-legged in the middle of it with a catalog and a pen marking the things he wanted in the space. This room, near the top of one of the spires, had been the Magus' chambers. It was spacious with plenty of head and wing room. The spire itself was adjoined to it via a door that lead to a spiraling staircase. The room above had been the alchemy lab.

The lower room contained modern, up-to-date bathroom facilities that were tucked away into what might once have been a dressing room. Of the original furniture, there was no sign. After a thousand years, most of it must have long since crumbled away to dust. The rooms were bare save for a couple of area rugs tossed about in a vain attempt to retain some heat.

Goliath had a fire blazing in the fireplace. Though the cold did not bother him much, he knew it would be intolerable for Elisa. He had hoped to see her this night, but he knew she was busy getting things in order for her undercover assignment. She had left a message that she would see him tomorrow night. In that time, Owen had assured him that his catalog selections would be in his chambers awaiting placement. The majordomo had no idea how the gargoyle wanted the room set up so he would leave that particular chore to him. The videos Xanatos had promised, however, were waiting for him in the media room to the right of his chambers. He was welcome to enclose himself and view them at his leisure.

After marking the last of the items he wanted, Goliath carefully placed the catalog in the small wire basket that was attached to his door. That was Owen's idea. He had said he would come by and collect it in the morning. Now, the gargoyle wandered down to the media room and let himself in. His heart was in his throat as he thought about the subject matter of the material he would be viewing. Porn was not a subject he was familiar with, but Xanatos and Owen both had assured him he would learn all he needed to know about the physical act of human mating. Xanatos had warned him the stories leading to the act itself would be quite corny and unrealistic. With that in mind, he pushed the first tape into the VCR and took a seat....


	3. The Ties that Bind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader Discretion Advised. Demona is on the warpath and Elisa is her target. Goliath an Elisa explore their burgeoning intimacy.

All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of R.A.Lyon.

Chapter Three

 _Elisa Maza must die!_ That was Demona's singular driving thought as she glided through the increasing snowfall. _But how_ , she wandered. She had tried many times to rid herself of the bothersome human to no avail. It seemed as if the woman had the nine lives of a cat. Now there was Goliath's increasing infatuation with the human to contend with. She knew now that it was hopeless to attempt to turn him to her way of thinking. He would follow his pet human to the ends of the earth. She wandered if he would follow the woman into death's embrace as well.

There was little time left before dawn when Demona thumped delicately down on the roof of the Nightstone building. She held the pale blue crystal up to the brightening sky. The heart of the praying gargoyle statue twinkled in the dim light. She had hidden it in the one place no one had thought to look; Castle Wyvern. The Atlantean crystal held incredible power beyond that which it had infused the statue. She need only figure out how to tap into that power. The stone would eventually regenerate the statue, but that would take decades. She intended to learn its secrets long before then.

Demona waited for sunrise and the painful transformation it brought forth before she stepped into the building. It would not due at all for Dominique Destine to wander into her office as a gargoyle. She would take the day to plan how to handle Maza. Then when the sun set, she would unleash hell on Earth for the human.

*****

Elisa sat on the sofa staring out the window sipping hot chocolate and watching it snow. It was Friday. She would be leaving for her undercover assignment Monday morning. Goliath would be herded into an unmarked van to follow just before dawn that morning. He would not be able to make the journey in one night otherwise. Captain Chavez had given her the entire weekend off. She thought of how she would spend her free time and with whom.

Goliath had left a message, with much halting and stumbling over words, on her answering machine. It sounded so unlike him, but then he was still unused to using some technology. Apparently he had finally taken Xanatos up on the offer of a room somewhere in the castle. He wanted her to see it tonight. Elisa's stomach was in knots and her heart turned flip-flops at the thought. Was he telling her he wanted to take their relationship to the next level already? She did not know and, in some weird way, that worried her. It was not as if she did not want to indulge in the more physical side of their relationship. She just did not know if either of them were truly ready to advance that far yet. Shivering with nerves, she took another sip of her hot chocolate and continued to brood.

*****

After taking a seat in the media room with the VCR running, Goliath had waited for the tape to begin. Xanatos had not been kidding about the cheesiness of the story leading to the act itself. When his initial shock at seeing the couple quite suddenly engage in uninhibited mating finally wore off, Goliath found he could not take his eyes from the screen. It must have been morbid curiosity that held him in place. Humans did things to each other that most gargoyles had barely even begun to explore in his time. Some of those things were unthinkable, others held a certain intrigue. He was glad for the privacy of the room as he thought of Elisa in some of those....compromising....positions.

As he watched, he realized that his own anatomy was not completely different from a human male. The basic function of his organ was the same. True, he was considerably larger than most of the human males portrayed on screen. There were a few major differences, however, that he and Elisa would need to explore together. He did not wish to harm her in an act of love.

Goliath was shocked beyond words once more when he started a tape labeled simply in Fox's elegant handwriting: 'bestiality'. He blinked in disbelief as the tape jumped straight into a depiction of a human female mating with a horse. _How is that possible_ , he wandered as he had already seen there was a limit to human flexibility. He found it disturbing and curious at the same time. As he watched some of the more exotic displays, he thought perhaps intimacy between himself and Elisa was not so far out of reach as he had first believed. He was not a horse by any means. The thought occurred to him that he would still need to take certain steps before committing to the act with her. He needed to be absolutely certain they were physically compatible.

Even with the material presented to him, in a less than tasteful manner, he was not entirely sure he was ready to move to an intimate level with Elisa just yet. There were still many things to consider, many more that he did not know. For a certainty, there were enough tapes to keep him occupied for months. It concerned him that his intimate differences might well drive Elisa away in revulsion. He was not human, after all. There were certain differences they would need to overcome. That was the very reason he had taken great lengths to avoid even having her catch him taking care of the 'call of nature' during the tour. 

*****

Demona followed the detective's car as it cruised through roads made treacherous by snow and ice. No sooner than the sun had begun to sink below the horizon, the human had climbed into the vehicle and headed in the general direction of the Eyrie building. The woman was, no doubt, running off to see Goliath. It sickened her how eager for each other they both were. She had avoided love for over three hundred years now. Her existence was far better off without that particular complication. It was a plague, a distractions, a _weakness_ she did not need. When Goliath awoke from his millennium long nap, she had thought then that perhaps she could rekindle whatever faint spark she had born for him. Reality had crashed down on her along with large chunks of the castle wall when he had turned his back on her. It had made her bitter like nothing else ever had. She could use bitterness. It brought the driving desire for revenge and that would eventually bring her a world cleansed of humanity.

Hovering for a moment, she watched the car pull into the parking garage of the Eyrie building. Just as she suspected, the human was running to Goliath. She smiled bitterly as she dove for the ground. If Xanatos had not changed the security codes, she still had access to at least one door into that garage. She could easily disable the cameras so that she might move about undetected. The car could prove to be the first step in taking the human out of the picture permanently.

Waiting several minutes, Demona finally made her way to the door and keyed in her access code. At first she thought it was not going to work. After a moment's hesitation, the digital bar above the keypad blinked green. She heard the distinctive 'snick' of the lock releasing. Carefully, she pulled the door open and slipped inside. When it closed softly behind her, she keyed in a different code in another keypad on this side of the door. The little red light on the camera above the door suddenly winked out.

 _Xanatos is slipping, he should have changed that code ages ago_ , she thought as she cautiously moved into the garage. The detective's car was not hard to pick out among the newer models. The gargess crept along the similar shapes until she found the Fairlane. Once along side it, she dropped to the cold cement and slithered under it. It was child's play. She knew the basic workings of the older cars. The brake lines, that was what she was most interested in. She would let the inability to stop in the foul weather dispose of the human for her.

Tracing a thin metal tube back to one of the rear tires, she located the section of the brake line she wanted. With a slight pinch of her talons she pierced the line. The fluid would leak out causing the brakes to fail at a critical point. If all went well, with the current weather conditions, Demona would be rid of the annoying human once and for all.

*****

An alarm sounded in the surveillance room. Owen tapped at a monitor that had suddenly flicked to digital snow. He frowned and toggled a couple of switches. A few seconds later he was rewarded with a panoramic view of the parking garage. As the camera panned around, Demona came into view. She was making a swift exit looking suspicious as ever. He poked the intercom button that would link him to Xanatos' office.

*****

Elisa rode the elevator up to the castle level trying to quell her nerves. It had been bad in the car. She had almost turned around and gone back home. Exiting the elevator, she was a little surprised to see Goliath coming down the hall toward her. It was then that she realized her nerves were finally beginning to settle. Just being near him had that effect on her. She was not sure what he had planned. As their eyes locked and the love welled up in her, she knew their time together would be perfect no matter what happened.

Goliath took her into his arms and wings as soon as she was within reach. It amazed him how much he had missed her in the expanse of one short night. He tried not to allow his anxiety to show as he guided her toward the room he hoped to share with her. It had taken him until nearly dawn to arrange the furnishings in a way he felt suited the space. Once he was satisfied with it, he was sure Elisa would like it as well. The sun had taken him with the ghost of a smile on his face in the middle of the large room.

The room was on the far side of the castle. It was secluded and private. Stopping before the door, Goliath fumbled with the key for a moment. His nerves caused his wing struts to twitch even as the lock was released and he opened the door. The dim light of candle and firelight by the fireplace set a soft glow about the room. He allowed Elisa to step in as he remained near the open door. This was her moment to familiarize herself with what had shortly become his personal space. He did not wish her to feel influenced by his presence in the room. She needed to be at ease before he would step in and close the rest of the world out.

Elisa roamed the room, taking note of all the things that deeply reflected Goliath's tastes. The room was easily double the size of her apartment with a twelve foot ceiling. There was a nook near a door at the back of the room with an easy-chair and a corner bookcase. In the opposite corner there was a large window with a huge reinforced bed near it. The bedding was a deep forest green and cream. There was a large sage colored area rug beneath the bed. It did not escape her that the bed was meant for her even as she examined the rest of the room. She noted the sage curtain, tied back now, that would wrap around the sleeping area. There was a faun colored area rug a few feet from the fireplace with a couple of chairs and a love-seat arranged as a sitting area. Against the wall to her right was a large dresser. She knew the door next to it would be the bathroom, but she did not know what the door at the back of the room lead to. She would explore that later, however.

“This is wonderful, Goliath,” she finally exclaimed. She turned to face him then. “You did all this?”

Goliath nodded and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. His heart soared with the knowledge that she approved. He held a hand out to her and when she took it, he guided her to the sitting area. This night would be the first of many such nights for both of them. He wanted her as comfortable with their surroundings as possible. Carefully taking a seat, he ran a talon through her hair. There was a barely noticeable tremor in his hand. Apparently she noticed it.

Elisa took his hand in both of hers and kissed the palm. She had felt the slight shaking. He was as nervous as she was. “Nothing has to happen tonight, Goliath. This can go as slow or as fast as we want to take it.” she paused deep in thought for several heartbeats then she brightened, an idea clear in her eyes. “Actually, I think we should start by asking each other the personal questions we've avoided for so long.”

Mulling it over, Goliath decided it was a very good idea. He was sure she had a great many questions. Even though he had spent several hours watching those sordid videos, he still had questions of his own that needed answers. “Very well, what would you like to know?”

“Well, for starters.... How do gargoyles normally handle relationships? I know you take mates, but is it for life? Do you have some sort of ritual or ceremony that makes a mating official? What happens if the couple want to separate?” she was bombarding him with questions and she knew it.

Goliath smiled and held up a hand in an attempt to at least slow her down. These were questions he had expected, questions he knew she needed answers to. “Normally gargoyles do mate for life. We do not practice the kinds of rituals and ceremonies that humans do. Our clan elders hear the couple out. They consider the match for three nights. If they feel it is a good match, the pair have the right to speak a bonding oath before the elders and the clan. There have been instances when a couple has grown apart, as humans sometimes do. The couple may separate if they so choose.”

“That simple?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, simple indeed.” he nodded.

“I have to know..... Did you and...?” Elisa was not sure she could have finished the question even if he had not cut her off.

“No....,” Goliath dragged the word out. “There were no such oaths spoken between us before the clan.”

Elisa let out a breath. It was a question that had long been on her mind, but until now, she had never had the nerve to ask. Now she had the answer. It was not what she expected. In a way, it made things much easier. Trying to decide how to word her next question, she fiddled with a string that had come loose from the hem of her shirt. It was going to start getting much more personal from here on out. “Ok, here goes.... Do gargoyles...you know.....mate in flight?”

She was blushing. He had rarely seen her blush. The nervousness was beginning to ebb off with the activity she had chosen. He was beginning to find it amusing, in fact, a faint smile played across his lips as he considered her reactions to his answers. “Yes, but it is not a requirement.”

“Oh, good, because that would be tricky since I don't have wings,” Elisa commented, there was a note of sadness in her voice that she tried to hide. She jumped to her next question, “Has there ever been a gargoyle/human couple before? Maybe some obscure legend or something?”

“I know of only one other. Their love was ended in slaughter before they were mated. There is also the legend of the _Great Dragon_ and her human mate.” Goliath told her what he knew of the gargoyle deity and her human lover. He spoke of Kamen, a commoner who was put to death by his king for taking a female gargoyle, Serena as his betrothed. The gargoyle was destroyed at dawn for her transgressions. “They were very much like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It is said with each lifetime the web of time spins them into they are reunited, human and gargoyle, forever of two worlds. One day, the pair will merge those two worlds into one, or so the story goes. I thought it only a story as a hatchling. Now I wander....,” he looked on Elisa with new eyes. Could it be that they were the couple spoken of in the legend? It had been nearly fifteen hundred years since the time of Kamen and Serena.

“Wow,” Elisa sighed with a smile, a wistful look on her face. She loved a good romance even if it did end in tragedy. The expression was replaced in a few moments with one that seemed much more serious, “Alright, time for the embarrassing questions.”

Goliath glanced at the window. It was not that he was looking for escape, he was making sure dawn was not coming. These questions were bound to make him uncomfortable, but they, like the others, needed answers. He could see that the night sky was filled with snow, but there was no hint of dawn as of yet. They had time. He nodded for her to continue.

Elisa asked many more questions that made him squirm or think of interesting ways in which to answer. Some of his answers, he knew were not as complete or descriptive as they could have been. He was not sure how to answer a few of her questions. Gargoyle anatomy was complex. Several of her questions were better left for a time when they were ready to explore them together. Neither of them was quite ready to move into that realm. For now, they were content to drill each other for information.

Goliath was watching the expressions play across her beautiful face as he answered one of her more sensitive questions. He feared he would drive her away with the answer. Instead, he saw a deep curiosity and perhaps even some understanding of his nature in her eyes. He wanted her, longed to take her in his arms and complete their union, but he resisted the urge. When they mated, if they mated, it would happen on her terms, in her time or it would not happen at all. Either way, he would accept whatever choice she made.

*****

Xanatos waited until the others had seated themselves around the table. He was a little disappointed when Goliath and Elisa did not make an appearance. “It appears we have more of a problem than we first thought. Sadly, Goliath and Elisa have decided to remain secluded in his chambers. This concerns them. More specifically, it may concern Elisa. Owen, care to elaborate?”

“Of course, Mr. Xanatos,” the majordomo said as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Demona was prowling around the parking garage only an hour ago. She appeared to be looking for something and I suspect that 'something' may have been Miss Maza's car.”

“What?! Exactly how did she get in?” Brooklyn demanded.

“It appears someone neglected to change a series of security codes for a little used door at the rear of the garage. Demona must have used those codes in order to obtain access to the vehicles parked within.” Owen's tone was oatmeal bland.

Brooklyn eyed him dangerously. He suspected Owen's tone would be like oatmeal even if he were facing his own demise. The brick red gargoyle grumbled, “I can't imagine she just popped in for a stroll through the luxury sedans. Any idea what she did?”

“None. The camera scanning that area was blank for several minutes,” Owen shrugged.

“Convenient,” Brooklyn all but growled in annoyance. “Looks like a couple of us go down to the garage and have a look around. Lex, you're with me. We'll check it out. Broadway, Angela, you two keep an eye out around the building for our least favorite redhead.”

“'suppose I be nominated to look in on Goliath an' Elisa.” Hudson commented. Bronx would follow him, of course. The garbeast was as loyal as a canine.

“You got it, Hudson. I doubt Demona would be stupid enough to just....drop in on them, but better safe than sorry.” Brooklyn grumbled as he headed for the door.

*****

“Nothing....,” Brooklyn grumbled as he finished his circuit of the large garage. “How could she have come in here like that and left no trace of what she did?”

“Maybe she changed her mind?” Lexington suggested.

“Yeah, and you're a leprechaun. We must be missing it. Maybe she hid something in here somewhere.” Brooklyn was at a loss. He did not trust Demona any farther than he could pick up the Eyrie building and throw it. She had to be up to something, he just needed to figure out what.

“We've been over everything. Nothing is out of place,” Lex paused and glanced around at the gleaming vehicles. Elisa's Fairlane was among them. It had seemed as untouched as the rest. “I don't know, Brook. Maybe she got cold feet and took off before she could do any damage.”

“Maybe, but I still don't like it,” Brooklyn flicked the end of his beak with a talon and turned back to the elevator. He wandered if Angela or Broadway had found any trace of the female.

*****

“She must have taken off or hidden on another rooftop,” Broadway was saying as he and Angela landed in the courtyard.

“In an hour's time, she could be almost anywhere. I wish Owen had mentioned it to us sooner,” Angela complained.

“Sometimes I think he's got a thing for Demona,” Broadway joked and received a nasty glare from his mate.

Angela crossed her arms and gave Broadway a hard look, “That wasn't funny! Besides, he's human and you know how my mother feels about humans.”

“Yeah, I know, but inside he's Puck. That's gotta count for something.” Broadway relented.

“She hates Puck even more.” Brooklyn stated as he entered the courtyard. “Find anything?”

“No a trace. It's like she just vanished.” the heavyset gargoyle grumbled. “How about you?”

“Nothin'... There wasn't even a speck of dirt disturbed on Elisa's car,” Brooklyn ran a hand through his hair before asking, “Does she even wash that car? I mean, it looks like a salt block.”

*****

Hudson stopped outside the heavy door to the clan leader's chambers. He could hear muffled sounds beyond, but could not be sure of their source. He put his hand to the door and only hesitated an instant before opening it. The pair before the fireplace jumped as if they had been shot.

The elder gargoyle froze in the doorway, his old heart skipping a beat when he saw Elisa's state of dress. Her feet were bare, her legs still encased in her jeans, but her shirt was missing. He could see the straps of her bra and the muscular shape of her wingless back. Hudson was glad he had not walked in any later. A few less clothes and the sight of her might have given him a heart attack. He could begin to see why Goliath was attracted to her. Human though she was, she held a certain beauty.

Goliath jumped as if he had been shot when Hudson opened the door. Elisa nearly toppled over him with the suddenness of his movement. As a result, her hands jerked reflexively on a handful of his hair. He flinched with a yelp. She smiled sheepishly at the elder male as she leaned back and grabbed her shirt from the back of the love seat.

Hudson noted with great relief that the only article of clothing that had been shed between the two of them was Elisa's outer top. They were bonding. It was the first step toward mating. He was glad he had not interrupted them while in the middle of something more. Elisa having been up in Goliath's hair like that was involved in the gargoyle equivalent of a human make-out session.

“I dinna mean to.....,” Hudson motioned toward her then changed gears, “Demona be on t'e prowl.”

“What? When?” Elisa threw on her shirt quickly, not caring that Hudson had a full view of her bra. It was no worse than a bikini top, after all.

“She dares much...,” Goliath began as he climbed to his feet, his sore scalp forgotten.

“She be wanderin' among the cars below an hour gone,” Hudson said, looking up at Goliath as the larger male joined him at the door.

“Shit!” Elisa exclaimed and grabbing her boots, ran out the door past the two males.

“Elisa, wait...,” Goliath called as he hurried after her.

“I parked my car in the garage tonight,” she called over her shoulder, but continued to run for the elevator.

Once there, she poked the button at least a dozen times before it reached their floor. She hopped into the waiting lift as she dragged a boot on. Stamping her foot down into it, she pulled the other one on and realized she had forgotten her coat. It did not matter. She did not plan to leave, only to check on her car. All sorts of things went through her mind of what Demona could have done. Checking would ease her mind.

When the elevator reached the garage level, Elisa was the first one out. The two gargoyles were hot on her heels. They spread out, making sure the garage was clear as the woman made her way to the car in question. She did not see any obvious signs of tampering and that worried her. Checking the doors, she found they were still locked. The hood was tightly down with no sign of claw marks. She glanced under the car and saw nothing out of place. There was a small spot on the cement, but several other cars had similar spots both large and small under them. It seemed fine and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“It looks ok,” Elisa said as she stood up and brushed the dirt off her hands. “I wander what she was doing in here. Maybe she brought the object back that she took from the castle the other night.”

“Perhaps...,” Goliath muttered as he scanned the ceiling. He saw a panel missing and moved to stand beneath it. Cold water dripped on his brow from a leaking pipe hidden in the ceiling and he shook his head. The remains of the missing panel crunched under his feet.

“Looks like Xanatos needs a plumber,” Elisa muttered as she joined them.

“The hole is too small for a gargoyle to squeeze into. I do not believe Demona could have escaped through it,” Goliath speculated.

“Aye, lad, it be too small, no doubt about it,” Hudson confirmed as he looked up at the hole.

“It's almost dawn,” Goliath said as he looked back down at Elisa. “You should stay here for the day, Elisa. It will be safer.”

“Yeah, good idea. We can go to my apartment tomorrow night so I can pack a couple of things for the undercover job. You know, tooth brush, pjs, that kind of thing,” Elisa tried to keep her nervousness out of her voice. She thought she succeeded. Goliath did not react in an overly protective manner.

Finding nothing more, they returned to the castle level. The mystery of what Demona had been doing there would have to wait until the following night. Goliath took his place upon his daytime perch not a moment too soon. The weak sunlight broke over the horizon and stone sleep took him in a fierce pose.

The cold drove Elisa back inside and she headed for Goliath's room. The fire had burned low. She knew she needed to get some sleep, but her body was hyped up on adrenaline. What had Demona done while in that garage? She did not know. There was no sign that she had even really been there. Could it be that the security camera had malfunctioned and begun playing old footage? Owen had said that the screen was blank just before he had seen the female.

Stripping down, Elisa tossed an over-sized shirt on to sleep in. she crawled into the bed and flopped out. It was as comfortable as the one she had slept in the day after Thailog had tried to kill Goliath. She stared up at the ceiling and tried not to think about Demona. Her mind turned toward what she and Goliath had been doing before Hudson had brought them the news.

*****

“Gargoyles go through a bonding process before we mate. A pair intending to mate will often indulge in more intimate touch as they grow closer. Hair stroking becomes very involved. Stroking the back between the wings is another way a couple might enjoy each others touch. If we begin this process, I will become much more protective,” Goliath paused trying to gauge her reaction. “as well as more open and attentive with my affection for you.”

“I can't imagine you being more protective,” Elisa said with a laugh. Goliath gave her a look she could not read, but there was the hint of a smile on his chiseled features and his eyes twinkled with mischief. She could not remember him ever seeming playful, but she was almost certain he was in that instant. “Did you and Demona bond?”

“No. She wanted me for breeding only. She had no more use for me once she was with egg,” Goliath answered sharply, giving her a hard look.

She had earned that look, she knew, but it still stung. “Sorry, I had to ask. So how do we start?”

His expression softened and he ran his talons through her hair. He explained some of the early stages of bonding to her. Things they could do that would not lead them too soon to mating. He was certain she was not yet ready for mating. Goliath would prefer that they took this very slowly. He wanted to savor every moment of their bonding before they committed to the act of love that would complete their bond.

At his suggestion, Elisa had positioned herself at his back between his wings. She stripped her top off as an afterthought while he settled onto the floor before the love seat. Oh how he had gasped his shock when he realized her bare skin was against his. Hesitantly, she ran her hands into his hair all the way to his scalp and pressed her body against his back. She had touched his hair before, but this night she was more sensitized to him. His hair was like spun silk, thick and luxuriant and she reveled in the feel of it. She rubbed her cheek on the top of his head and received a rumbling sigh from him as his wings relaxed around him. Closing her eyes, she inhaled the scent of his hair just as the door had opened....

The wonderful spell of contentment that had surrounded them like a warm cocoon had shattered when Hudson stepped in. _Next time_ , she vowed silently, _the door will be locked_. Goliath had not told her how many nights a couple might bond before finally mating. He had simply said they would not mate until they were ready. She took that to mean that bonding could drag out as long as she wanted it to. The thought settled her nerves quite a bit. She wanted him, wanted more than anything to become his mate, but she was not sure she was ready for the reality of it just yet. They had been through so much and come so far already. He was the love of her life. Maybe even her soulmate, the thought lazily slipped across her mind as sleep claimed her.

*****

Goliath burst forth from his stone sleep with a mighty roar only to find deep snow all around him. It had been snowing for several nights now. He looked up at the angry sky and wandered how much more snow it might unleash. For the moment, it had stopped, but the wind kicked up drifts and caught at his wings. Elisa waited a slight distance behind him and he scooped her up with a smile. The wind called to him and he flung himself out into it holding his love tightly against his chest. He allowed himself to free-fall, listening to Elisa giggle in delight for several long seconds. Scant feet above the street, he finally snapped his wings wide, his rich laughter filling the air. The wind jerking them back and upwards into the night.

*****

Monday morning came too soon. She had watched Goliath step into the back of the van and crouch down just before dawn. His weight had caused the vehicle's shocks to protest. As the sun crested the horizon, stone sleep froze him with a troubled look on his face. He did not like being so vulnerable and Elisa did not blame him in the least. At least Chavez had allowed Bluestone and Morgan to take shifts driving the van instead of someone Goliath did not know. That, at least, had been a balm to his nerves. They were well on their way to the safehouse before she was even ready to head out. She had to give them time to get ahead or her cover would be blown before it was even established.

*****

Two hours later....

The Fairlane swerved dangerously as Elisa fought for control. The brake peddle had become increasingly more like a sponge with every stop. Now she stomped the peddle clear to the floor with no results. She continued to slide around the curves of the cliff-road at too high a speed for the current icy conditions. Her tires hit a particularly slick expanse of ice and the car slid into a spin toward the guardrail. It hit with a solid nerve-deadening jolt and the squeal of tearing metal. Her momentum carried the car through the barrier and over the embankment. The car bounced once, slamming her against the restraining force of her seat-belt. It began to roll, end over end, in dizzying spirals. Anything and everything that was loose in the cab became projectiles that tore at her hands and face. She was sprayed with glass when the windows suddenly exploded. All she could do was hold on to the now useless wheel.

As suddenly as it had begun, the wild tumble down the embankment ceased. The car came to rest on a short sandy beach, barely missing a rocky outcropping. The impact was hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs for several long seconds. Elisa looked around in groggy disorientation. She reached over to the glove box and yanked it open. The contents spilled out onto the car's ceiling and she realized she was upside-down, the entire car was. She fished around in the dull morning light for the belt cutter. There was no way her seat-belt was going to release after a tumble like that. She found it just as icy water engulfed the inside of her car.

The shocking sensation of tens of thousands of tiny ice needles punching into her flesh all at once nearly forced the air from her lungs as the wave rushed in. The breath she had gulped in just before the water hit her had been dumb luck and she thanked the heavens for it. Elisa struggled to cut the belt as the wave began to recede. To her horror, it was dragging the wreckage of her car with it, dragging her with it. It would, inexorably, pull her car out to sea. Her movements were becoming sluggish. She mentally ticked off the ravages of freezing water. Hyperventilation in one minute, hypothermia in under three minutes, total numbness, loss of motor skills and coordination in ten minutes, unconsciousness in twenty minutes, death in an hour or less. That was assuming she was actually able to breathe through the process. If she did not get loose from that thin strip of nylon soon, she knew she never would.

Just as she began to accept the inevitable, the last threads of the belt snapped and she was free. Grabbing the door frame and cutting her hand on loose glass, Elisa half pulled, half pushed herself from the sinking car. Her lungs burned for air and her limbs refused to work. She was in real trouble and there was no hope of rescue. Her guardian angel was still encased in stone sleep. Images of her life and Goliath flicker across her mind. Thoughts of all the things they would never do together came unbidden as her lungs convulsed for air. _How I wish we could have become mates_ , she thought as numbing cold rushed into her.

*****

More to come! Stay tuned.


	4. Death's Embrace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Violence/Strong Language, Reader Discretion Advised.  
> The winds of change swirl ever faster around Goliath and Elisa sweeping those close to them along for the ride. Elisa has failed to make the checkpoint just after sunset. Goliath is beside himself with worry as he and Bluestone double back along their path in an effort to find her.

All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of Rosebud1773 (R.A.Lyon).

Chapter Four

Dominique all but bounced with glee as she watched the detective's car roll down the steep embankment. Bits and pieces of paper, glass and assorted items from inside the vehicle exploded from it with each bounce. It left a trail of litter all the way down to the beach below. Her all too human hands gripped the guardrail in anticipation as the car narrowly missed a rocky outcropping on the wet sand. She let out a breath of frustration. It seemed the human's uncanny luck was still intact.

Following the woman at a distance in her own car, Dominique noted Maza had clung to the road longer than she would have thought possible. Now, as she stood at the edge of the precipice looking down at the wreckage, laughter bubbled up out of her. It was a deranged laughter, the laughter of the truly insane. She did not care in that moment. Instead, she basked in it, drew strength from it and reveled in the reality that she was a creature of chaos.

Tapping a nail on the cold metal, she contemplated the idea of going down to the beach to be sure the human was dead. Sunset was still hours away, if she went now, it would be as Dominique. Her human form could not easily navigate the steepness of the cliff-face. It was with a great deal of reluctance that she decided against such a trek.

After a few moments, she regained a measure of the tenuous grip she maintained on sanity. Climbing back into her car, she eased it away from the twisted guardrail and drove off. Being found at the scene, should someone happen by, was not on her list of things to do today. The tide would pull the wreckage off the beach. When she returned at nightfall, there might be little sign left of Maza's passage from the world. If luck was with her, she would find one of two things; either the car was completely submerged and invisible to searching eyes, or it would still be in the shallows and the human's body would be inside, cold and decidedly dead. Either way, she had won.

*****

When Elisa failed to make the checkpoint just after sunset, a rest-stop not far from the county line, Goliath recklessly took to the air. It did not strike him in that instant that she could easily be a couple hundred miles behind them. All he knew for certain was that she must be in trouble. She needed him and he was determined to go to her.

“Hey,” Matt called to him from the ground and when he did not respond, the human grew bold and shouted, “Hey, blockhead!”

With an angry snarl, Goliath banked and dove toward the ground, toward the human in truth. He drew up short and landed with a heavy thump before the man with a furious glare. The human gave him a hard look, but did not back down. The gargoyle caped his wings and waited for the man to speak his mind.

“You can't fly that far and we both know it. Get in the van, we're going back to look for her.” Matt snapped at him. He glanced at Morgan as he moved toward the van, “Morgan, stay here in case she shows up before we get back.”

“I do not wish to be confined while Elisa is out there somewhere...in trouble...,” Goliath grumbled, barely containing his urge to take to the air once more and search for her.

“Fine, ride on the roof, but I'm driving back the way we came,” throwing a hand in the air in frustration, Matt climbed into the driver's seat of the van and the engine roared to life. He did not wait to see what Goliath would do before he had it in gear and moving.

Goliath hesitated for a heartbeat then leaped onto the roof as Bluestone had suggested. The gasp he heard from inside the vehicle told him that the human had not expected he would really ride on the roof. He had to admit to himself that sometimes he took things a bit too literally. In other circumstances it might have stricken him as humorous. Now, it only served to annoy him.

They traveled into the night. The road showed no sign of Elisa or her car. Goliath rode the air currents until his wings grew too tired to carry him. He resumed his position on the roof many times as the miles passed. Even with his keen eyes and a higher vantage point, he could pick out no other tire tracks but their own. It was clear that she had not yet made it this far. Concern kept him sharp and alert to movement around the fringes of the road. Several times he picked out faint movement and glided over to investigate only to discover a deer or some other animal among the trees. Still, there was no sign of Elisa.

*****

As the sun sank below the horizon the change came upon her. Demona screamed her way through it as she did every night. Once it was finished, she wasted no more time. She took to the sky and glided toward the place the detective's car had met its end. Over the centuries her wings had grown strong enough to carry her farther distances for longer periods of time. It surprised her that the muscular structure of her wing-struts had not grown huge and bulky. She assumed it had something to do with her feminine nature. Perhaps there was just a limit to the mass a wing muscle might obtain before it simply grew to heavy for gliding. She did not know, nor did she care in that moment. Her wings would easily carry her one hundred fifty plus miles without much more than a little burning. That was what had made escape from her former clan so much easier over the years. They simply did not have enough gliding stamina to catch her. She found it amusing that even Goliath with his great wings could no longer keep up with her.

Demona reached her destination after only an hour in the air. She circled her target once before making her decent. Noting, as she landed on the beach, the vehicle had not been pulled out as far to sea as she might have hoped, she scanned the thin beach. There were few signs of the accident remaining to mark the sand. If the human had somehow crawled out of the wreckage, she would find her.

There was a storm rolling in, beating the lapping waves into a frothing frenzy. It would bring the sea near to high tide levels along the thin strip of beach. The entire area might shortly be under several feet of water. She realized she had little time in which to complete her distasteful task.

*****

The hard impact on the beach drove the water from her lungs. Her gasp was a wheezing cough that screamed desperately for air. The coming storm was whipping the waves into a tempest. Her body was washed onto the beach a few hundred yards from her car. Clawing at the sand, she dragged herself away from the water's edge with all the strength that remained to her battered body. Panting, she lay there for an indeterminate amount of time. She knew little else save that time passed and with its passage she grew a fraction stronger. Her mind shied away from any thoughts of how or why she had survived. It was enough that she had and once again she slipped into blackness.

The the curtain of night had been pulled across the sky when she awoke again. With the darkness came the tides. The storm was still some distance away, but even still, it stirred the sea restlessly. She managed to pull herself weakly to her feet and noticed she was missing a boot. Her coat was gone as well, but the cold barely seemed to touched her. _Maybe_ , she thought, _it's because I'm already half frozen to the bone_. Perhaps it had more to do with how she had survived her little dip in the icy sea. Her mind skipped over that thought and refused to face it. There would be time enough later to examine the how and why of it all. Right now, she needed to find a way back up to the road.

Taking an experimental step, she staggered forward and sank to her knees. Her limbs were still not working properly, she realized. It was a struggle to climb back to her feet. She shivered when a gust of wind wrapped around her. It was cold, but somehow that seemed much more distant to her than it should be. By all rights, she knew she should be dead. The the accident, the extended dip in ice water, her lungs convulsing for air several feet below the surface....

Elisa closed her eyes against the thoughts and images. She was not ready to face any of it. Right now, she needed to get back to the road. The chances of getting help were better up there. She might flag down a passing car. If she did not find a way to get back up to the road, she knew she could die right there on that beach. High tide would wash her body out to sea and no one would know what had happened for weeks, if not months.

*****

Demona wandered the beach for a time before coming across one of the detective's boots. She kicked at it in irritation. Where there was a boot, there may well be more, she knew. The beach had revealed little more to her in the hours since her arrival. She was about to head back to the wreckage and check inside, when she caught a glimpse of something lying a short distance away. It moved and she watched stunned, her anger rising as it stood. A human, _the_ human she had hoped to destroy when she cut those brake lines, rose to her feet and staggered across the beach. Her rage pulled tight like a violin string across her nerves. It snapped in an instant...

*****

“ _What does it take to destroy you?!_ ” the female scream came unexpectedly.

Elisa gasped and turned just as an enraged Demona dove at her. There was no time to dodge out of the way. The gargess' hands impacted her collarbones, talons digging painfully into her flesh. She was slammed bodily against a slab of rock. The air was forced out of her in a grunt. Her head bounced against the rough surface as she was repeatedly shaken like a rag doll. Stars exploded across her vision with each impact. Disoriented, she tried to move, to fight back and could not.

Demona effectively pinned her to the slab. Her eyes blazed red with blood-lust. She raged at the human, “What is so special about you that I _cannot_ kill you. Time and time again you survive when others have fallen before me. _Why?!_ ”

“I don't know.....,” Elisa gasped. It was hard to breath with an angry gargoyle all but sitting on her. “Maybe....I just like.....pissing you off.”

“Wrong answer, _human_. I think I will enjoy ripping your heart out. Maybe I'll even bathe in your blood, make Goliath watch... Would you like that? Do you like knowing that your protector cannot save you from me now?” Demona had lost her tenuous grip on sanity in that moment.

The gargess pounded the human's head against the stone once more forcefully. Then, as she held the human firmly with one hand, she raised the other to deliver a fatal strike to her chest. Elisa's eyes widened in fear. _So this is how it ends_ , she thought. The unbidden thought was forced aside in the seconds before those talons began to descent. Her whole world was moving in slow motion. That hand was coming down, adrenaline rushed through her and she felt as if she were inside a bubble of sudden calm......then it burst.

*****

Bluestone and Goliath had managed to find evidence of Elisa nearly fifty miles from the checkpoint. The tire tracks in the snow were not fresh. They became stuttering skid marks a few feet from a twisted expanse of guardrail. The human and gargoyle followed the tire tracks to the edge of the cliff. Here there was more evidence, debris lay scattered all the way down to the beach. The glint of chrome could be seen just below the surface of the lapping waves a short distance from that beach. A tire broke the surface with the ebb and flow of the waves.

Goliath did not wait for Bluestone, gave no thought for how the human might make it down to the beach before he launched himself toward the wreckage. Fear for Elisa gripped his heart like a vice. It spurred him onward, heedless of the gusting wind coming in off the bay. He guessed the drop at nearly one hundred feet as he dove for the water. Landing waist deep with a splash, he stared at the vehicle in disbelief for several seconds. There was no doubt that it was Elisa's car. He grabbed the vehicle and strained with all his mighty strength to haul it from the pull of the water and onto the beach. Ripping the door completely free of the crumpled car, he took a steadying breath and peered inside. Of Elisa, there was no sign, but he could see the belt had been cut. She may yet live, he realized. He scanned the length of the beach as Matt finally made his way to the water's edge. Nothing, he saw nothing of her along the beach. That meant very little, however. The tides could easily have washed away any prints she might have left. He knew that if they did not find her soon, she would freeze to death.

“Hey, you know, I could have used a lift down here.....,” Matt drew up just short of Goliath when he got a look at the twisted red and white mass of metal that had once been Elisa's prized Fairlane. He gasped and, running both hands through his hair, he started to pace with panic. “Oh man, ooooh, you don't think she....? I gotta call this in.”

The Wyvern clan leader carefully scanned the beach for any marks as he made his way along the water's edge. He silently begged the dragon that there would be some sign, something, anything to tell him that she had survived. He knew the costs of hypothermia on the human body. He had witnessed them first-hand in Scotland long ago and again in Norway when Avalon had sent them to meet Odin. Elisa could not survive long in such temperatures without shelter. It would be made worse from a dunking in the frigid sea. He would not give up his search for her until the rising of the sun forced him into stone sleep.

*****

The bubble of calm surrounding her burst with the suddenness of an explosion. One moment Demona was all but sitting on her about to tear her heart from her chest. In the next moment, she felt as if her very bones were melting. The heat was real, somehow she knew that. The snow, ice and even the water around the pair was rapidly boiling away. The steam rolling around the stone slab was much like a sauna.

It was fuzzy, like a distant dream. Demona shrieked as her hands unexpectedly erupted in flame. Green flame and hot as the fires of hell itself. The fire singed Elisa's flesh before the gargess released her and dove toward the water. The female thrust her hands into the lapping waves in an effort to extinguish the flames that were consuming them. She whimpered and hissed in pain as she pulled her steaming, near skeletal hands from the water. The fire had burned away most of the flesh. The immortality spell was working overtime, however as her hands began to slowly regenerate. As the muscle tissue grew back, her mind was teetering on the edge of real violence.

Elisa rolled off the stone onto the patch of dry sand she had inadvertently created around it dizzily. Her head pounded as if a jackhammer was eating into her brain with every wild beat of her heart. As the gargess turned back toward her, Elisa scooped a handful of sand up into her eyes and half ran, half fell the other way.

“I should have known you were a thrice damned _half-breed Fae!_ ” Demona shrieked after her. All her hatred for Oberon's children seemed bundled up in that one scream. She searched around wildly for her prey, half blind from the sand in her eyes. “Make no mistake, Maza, I _will_ kill you when I find you!” 

Even as Demona spat the words venomously, Elisa's head spun with questions. Frantically, she searched for some escape that would not be obvious, someplace that she could hide from the wild creature that raged behind her. She saw nothing so she ran, limping onward toward the cliff-face. With every step, she expected attack from behind. Every breath brought her closer to the cliff.

The impact, when it came, was not entirely unexpected. She was drilled into the sand hard and slid several feet. A heartbeat later, she was flipped over and lifted into the air by her throat. Her hands reflexively gripped the winged woman's charred wrists. The air froze in her lungs, she could not breath in that vice-like grip. In a futile effort, she kicked at Demona wildly. To her surprise, she made a hard connection with her jaw. The grip loosened with a scream and Elisa hit the ground choking in air. She did not let the opportunity slip by her, however. Heart hammering and lungs struggling to supply her body with oxygen, she kicked the gargess' legs out from under her. The other woman landed hard on her rump. It was not the victory it should have been.

Demona snarled and used her tail as much as her legs to propel herself forward, toward her prey. The hunt was upon her now. Only she and her prey existed in all of the world in that moment. Her eyes blazed red as her taloned hands made contact with the human's wrists. She locked them in an iron grip and pinned them high over the human's head as she straddled her. Transferring both wrists to one hand, Demona wrapped her other regenerating hand around Elisa's throat, talons digging into tender flesh.

“I'm going to snap your neck like a twig. Death will come quick, but it _will_ come. It will be quicker than you deserve.” Demona growled and began to apply a slowly increasing amount of pressure.

There was no escape Elisa realized. She could not repeat whatever it was that had saved her only moments ago. Her limbs grew weaker as her body starved for oxygen. Helplessness was a feeling she had little experience with, but she knew its cold hand now as Demona's grip tightened. She tried vainly to buck her off, but the gargess weighed too much and she strength was leaching away.

Just before her vision faded to oblivion, Elisa heard the thunder of heavy footfalls on the sand racing toward her like a raging bull. A familiar bellow of rage carried though the night air just as consciousness escaped her grasp.

*****

Goliath's sharp ears had picked up the sound of voices and struggle over the crashing of the waves. As he rounded a section of rock sticking up several feet from the sand, he saw the source. Demona, her back to him, was pinning a struggling human to the ground. He could think of only one who might be on that beach. His eyes blazed white-hot as he drove into a dead run at her. The bellow that tore from his lungs was one of pure hatred and rage for the creature who had once been his lover.

*****

Demona stiffened when she heard his bellow. She tightened her grip, attempting to snap Elisa's neck before the impact she knew must be coming. A choked sound escaped her when he hit her at a dead run. The shock seemed to deaden the nerves in her arms as her hands numbly released the woman's throat. She was driven into the stony sand. If not for her innate agility, the sand might have shredded her face. Instead, she twisted to fight the lavender male just as she impacted with the beach. Goliath was virtually sitting on her when their slide came to a halt. His weight effectively pinned her just as she had pinned the human only moments ago.

“Awe, what's wrong, Goliath? Don't you _love_ me anymore?” a sweet smile spread across Demona's lips and she licked them, wiggling suggestively beneath him. “I'm sure I could refresh your memory...”

“The very sight of you sickens me, Demona,” Goliath seethed and clamped his knees tighter against her hips in an effort to stop her movements.

“Oh, ouch, that stings,” her smile widened when a growl of anger slipped past his lips. She wiggled again and the pressure of his knees increased to a painful point. There was a purr in her next words as she whispered seductively, “Do it again...”

Goliath, Demona firmly in his grip, stood and lifted her with him. He had had enough of her sexual innuendos. His disgust for her spilled over into his every action. The words, when he spoke them, contained such loathing it shocked him to hear it in his own voice. “My Angel of the Night died with our clan the night you _betrayed_ them! You and I are.... _no more_ , Demona.”

Demona's eyes widened as he spoke. He was about to officially break their bond. She could hear it in his tone. It did not matter that the only conscious witness was a human. The break required only that there be a witness, _any_ witness. There was real horror in her whisper, “No, you can't... What about our daughter?”

"She is none of your concern," The lavender behemoth held her upper arms in a tight grip as he had on another such night when he had declared his love. Now, however, he made a different sort of declaration, “I denounce you, Demona. I withdraw our mating pledge. You are free to choose another,....as am I.”

“You would choose a _human whore_ over one of your own kind?! _Let go of me! Unclean savage_ ,” the gargess raged and fought against his grip as the realization of his words sank in. She never thought he would actually denounce her. Always before there had been a hope of reconciling their relationship. Even he must have carried that hope at one time or he would have released her long ago. She had thought she only needed to open his eyes to the true nature of humanity. Now she knew otherwise. The human had thoroughly corrupted his heart, possibly even his soul. The thought of him rutting with the human sickened her beyond words and she screamed into his face.

Goliath shoved her away from him in disgust, his last word to her barely more than a whispered growl, “Go...,”

Demona glanced from him to the two humans beyond and screamed in frustration. There was no way she was getting past him to exact vengeance on the vermin that had stolen him away from her. That time would come, she knew, but not this night. “This isn't _finished_ , Goliath!” she raged at him before turning to run for the cliff-face. In moments she had scaled the rocky expanse. Throwing herself into the currents, she disappeared into the night sky over the bay.

*****

As Goliath had stormed toward Demona and bowled her over, Matt raced for Elisa's still form. He dropped to his knees beside her, kicking up sand with the force. It did not look good. The woman was bruised and bloodied both from the car accident and her struggle with Demona. She was not breathing and Matt was hard pressed to find pulse. There was an angry red hand-print around her neck that was bound to leave a nasty bruise and Matt worried her trachea might be crushed. He was never more glad of his CPR training than he was in that moment.

While Demona's attempt to seduce Goliath failed, the cop worked on reviving his fallen partner. He hoped it was not too late. Elisa's lips were turning blue with the lack of oxygen in her blood. He heard sirens off in the distance and prayed they were not arriving only to take her to the morgue. She was not responding to his treatment.

*****

“C'mon, _breathe_ , dammit! Breathe, _Elisa!_ ” Matt was saying in between compressions and breaths as the lavender gargoyle turned back toward them.

Goliath had not realized the situation was so dire when he confronted Demona. Now he saw Bluestone doing for Elisa what the woman had once done for his daughter. It took every ounce of his willpower to maintain a manageable state of mind. He glanced up at the road as the sound of sirens came to him. He put a hand on the human's shoulder to draw his attention. “Can they help her?”

Elisa's body suddenly flinched away from the pressure on her chest. A wheezing breath filled her tortured lungs. Matt sat back on his heels and wiped sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his trench coat. “I hope so. She's breathing again anyway. Let's get her up to the squad.”

Goliath, mindful of her injuries, scooped Elisa's body up and headed for the cliff-face. He struggled to climb up to the road one-handed, Matt right behind him. His one driving thought was that Elisa would get the help she needed if only he made it to the road above. He did not think he could face a world that did not have Elisa Maza in it.

He laid Elisa gently in the snow above him as he climbed up behind her. It struck him then, he was finally free of Demona in a way he had not been since their first mating. It was done in such a way that satisfied custom. A heavy weight had seemingly lifted from his shoulders when he had officially released his former mate. He was at last free to explore his relationship with Elisa without the guilt that had haunted him these last months. She need only survive this night. He would pull her into the regeneration of stone sleep with him if he had thought it was possible. It had never before been attempted. No human had ever been brave enough to maintain physical contact with a gargoyle in the moments when stone sleep overtook them. It was a risk he was not ready to take given her current unstable condition. He was not sure it would even work.

Instead, he hunkered down low among the trees as the squad pulled to a stop near Matt's van. Bluestone climbed to the top and carefully lifted Elisa in his arms. He hitched her up to gain a better hold on her limp form before moving toward the squad and the waiting medics. Sunrise froze Goliath in stone there just behind the guardrail with a worried look on his face as he watched the two humans.

*****

Matt glanced back to where Goliath crouched in concealment just as the sun crested the horizon. Elisa's weight was slight in his arms as he carried her to the medics and the gurney they were pulling down out of the waiting squad. He laid her out on it and the medics wasted no time in hauling her inside the vehicle. They pulled the door shut and began on-site treatment.

The trouble with squads was they were not sound proof. Matt heard everything. He paced back and forth beside his van like a caged animal. The man all but swallowed his tongue when he heard the heart monitor suddenly shrill a steady alarm. He knew real panic when the medics started calling back and forth for epinephrine, cardiac needles and paddles. _We might really lose her this time_ , he thought sarcastically. What as he going to tell the captain? It was not going to be easy. This kind of thing never was.

The medics worked on her in a frenzy, performing one field procedure after another to revive her. Five minutes, then six ticked by and still the alarm screamed into the early morning. He heard one of them call an official time of death. Elisa's partner sank to a squat against his van, head in his hands. He did not know what he was going to tell Goliath. How he was going to tell the big guy when he woke up? What was he going to say? _Oh, by the way, your favorite human died right after you went down for your stone nap. Sorry about that_ , he thought sarcastically. What as he going to tell the captain? It was not going to be easy. This kind of thing never was.

Ten minutes later the medics were filling out paperwork and ignoring the constant shrill tone of the monitor. They were readying her body and the equipment for transport to Manhattan General as time ticked by. It seemed an eternity and still that blasted monitor continued its shrill alarm untended.

Two of the medics were working Elisa's body into a body bag after disconnecting her I.V. one was working on untangling the monitor wires and removing them when a miracle seemingly occurred. More than twenty minutes after she was declared legally dead, Elisa Maza's heart gave a jolting thump that broke the monitor's persistent tone. Her body jerked and breath was sucked into her nearly collapsed lungs. She cried out sharply in pain and sat bolt upright on the gurney. The medics swarmed her.

Matt lost his footing and sat down hard against the side of his van as much in relief as shock when he heard her. _She was dead_ , he thought, _twenty-two minutes, thirty-five seconds, I kept track_. She was dead and now she's alive. He did not know how it had happened nor did he care. All he knew was that it had happened. He let out an unsteady breath and offered a silent thanks to the heavens. As soon as the monitor started to blip with a normal heartbeat, one of the medics hit the siren and the vehicle sped away toward the local hospital.

*****

“An accident?! What do you mean she had an accident?” Chavez barked into the phone.

Matt sounded frantic on the other end of the line. He said something about Maza being dead and Chavez had barely managed to hit her chair when her good leg gave out under her. As he continued to clarify his statement, she managed to catch her breath.

“I swear to you, Captain, she was clinically dead for over twenty minutes. How the hell does a thing like that happen?” even as he said it, he knew it sounded crazy.

“You said yourself she was suffering from hypothermia, Matt. Couldn't her heartbeat have been too weak for the machine to pick up?” Chavez asked.

“No, I don't think so. The medics called time of death. They have a death certificate that was being processed on the scene. It would have been filed as soon as they wheeled her into the morgue. It'll be with the rest of her paperwork when they wheel her into triage.” he paused for a long moment. “Captain, they were freaking out when her heart started beating again.....”

Chavez considered his words for several long moments. She knew him well enough to know the different tones of his voice. He believed every word he was telling her. “Ok, Bluestone, I'm heading to General now. That certificate needs to be buried and fast.”

Matt sighed in relief, “Yeah, that was my thought too. I'll meet you there.”

“Stay with Goliath. Unless I miss my guess, I'm betting he's beside himself with worry right about now,” the captain said.

“Actually, he's asleep....,” Matt began and was cut off by Chavez's outraged exclamation.

“ _Asleep?!_ How can he sleep at a time like this?!” she demanded. 

“He doesn't have a choice, Captain. Didn't the gargoyles tell you when you met them?” Matt cut in.

“Tell me what?” she barked.

“Captain, they turn to stone during the day. That's why we were moving Goliath to the safehouse by van. It wasn't just because his wings would wear out before he made it on his own.” Matt clarified.

“You're _kidding_ , right? Tell me you're joking because if you're not....,” there was a half-hearted threat in her voice just then.

“It's true. I'm looking at Goliath's stone mug as we speak,” Bluestone said and as an afterthought, he gently rapped the cell phone against Goliath's stone form.

“Alright, stay with him. When he wakes up, bring him back to Manhattan General. I'm sure he's going to want to see Maza,” Chavez sighed before hanging up the phone.

*****

Elisa jolted awake. The burst of pain that followed her ripped a cry from her burning lungs. There was too much sensory input bombarding her. Her senses were raw, her very nerves felt like they were overloading. The sounds of cars, a blaring siren, people yelling orders back and forth. It was all jumbled together and out of place. Then there was the poking, the probing, the residual tingle of electrical fire coursing through her nervous system, and she was so incredibly hot. If felt as if her flesh was melting away from her bones.

“Normal sinus rhythm,” an unfamiliar voice relayed information.

“How is that _possible_?! She was _dead_ , dammit! I had no heartbeat for over eight solid minutes before I called time.” someone demanded.

“I don't know. BP low, body temp way below normal. We need to stabilize her. Get her to General asap. Let them sort it out.” the first voice said.

“Welcome back. Do you know your name? Your date of birth?” a big bald dark man dressed in a paramedic uniform said in a deep voice as he hovered into view.

She blinked at him groggily, her voice weak, her words slow and slurred, “Detective....Elisa Maza, 23rd ...,” she paused, trying to clear her head. “Born.....12-31-68.” 

“Good, good. How about the year?” the big man nodded.

“1996....,” she breathed as her vision began to fade in and out again.

“You just sit tight. We'll get you to the hospital as soon as we can,” the big man said as he glanced back toward the front of the vehicle.

The accident, Demona's attack, and her escape were all a blur. She vaguely remembered hearing Goliath's bellow before it had all gone black. Early morning light poured into the compartment she was strapped into and she knew he would be encased in stone. She would not see him until well after sunset. The vehicle bounced once too often on its way to its destination and darkness consumed her again.

*****

Demona managed to make it back to Nightstone just before sunrise. Now she raged and screamed through the private portion of her office. He had really done it! Goliath had denounced her and withdrawn his mating pledge to her. Had he taken his human whore yet? Did he truly intend to mate with her? She found the very idea revolting. How he could even consider such a thing was beyond her. It was a violation of nature. In her mind, humanity was no better than vermin. They had to be exterminated! The sooner the better by her way of thinking.

Her rage finally melted away when her eyes lit on the sparkling blue crystal from Atlantis. The very crystal that had lain at the heart of the praying gargoyle statue Goliath crushed. It hovered an inch above the stand she had placed it in. Already its power was working to restore the statue. That statue, the crystal in truth, was imbued with the power to protect the gargoyle race. She had attempted to use that power once. Would it protect them without the statue, she wandered. She doubted it. The statue was the embodiment of the gargoyle people. Without it, the power of the crystal could not be channeled.

Taking the crystal in her hand, she walked to the wall of windows and held it up to the faint winter sunlight. Energy was energy whether it be produce by magic, science or natural. There were ways to tap energy no matter what its form. She just needed to find the way to tap what was locked away within the crystal. It was too bad the Atlanteans were all gone. They could have provided her with the knowledge she needed. She would have to settle for the scrolls and books she had collected over the centuries. There were many from the lost isle in her private collection. She hoped one of them might prove enlightening. The humans were good for a few things. One of those was their obsession with writing things down. She stalked toward the hall and the elevator that would take her to the parking garage. The scrolls she needed were tucked away at her estate. The sooner she got to work on them, the sooner she might rid herself of every last human on the planet. She would be rid of one human in particular; _Elisa Maza_ , even if it cost her the immortality she had come to enjoy.

*****

Chavez made her way into the hospital emergency room just as the medics were wheeling Maza in. She saw the clipboard with its all important documents lying haphazardly across the woman's legs. Tapping the big dark medic on the shoulder, she held up her badge and smiled sweetly.

"Got no time here.....," he squinted at her badge and I.D. as he maneuvered the gurney, "Captain. This woman is in critical condition."

"Look, I'm going to need you to keep her _death_ and the circumstances of her revival under wraps. We can't have a thing like that getting out, especially now," Chavez said, tucking her badge back into her jacket.

"Can't do that. All her info goes to patient information. The doctor will need to review it to treat her. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really need to get her settled." with that, he pushed the gurney down the hall.

"I'm coming with her...," Chavez began.

"Sorry, Miss, you just can't be here right now. No visitors until she's stabilized." the big man grumbled.

Chavez glared at him. She did not care that he was nearly as big as Goliath without the wings. "You'd really deny her _aunt_ access to her room when she might be dying? Are you that cold?"

"Fine, but stay out of the way," he grumbled as he looked her small stature up and down, "or you might get stepped on."

Nodding, Chavez followed him at a slight distance. The bit about being Elisa's aunt was a white lie, but she knew the Maza's would vouch for her once they arrived. She pulled her cell phone from a pocket and dialed them as she stepped into the exam room.

*****

Xanatos sat in his office watching the sun set and thought how best to break the news to the clan. He never liked sugar-coating the facts, it did nothing to change them. At least the rest were not as touchy as Goliath was with this sort of news. He wandered how the lavender behemoth would take it. Maza still lived, at least there was that, but her prognosis was not good.

As soon as he heard the roars of awakening, Xanatos stood and straightened his jacket. No time like the present, he thought as he headed out the door toward the elevator. He would soon see how well they took the news.

*****

Brooklyn did not like the look on the man's face when he came up to the parapets. It was a grim look, one that spoke of trouble for the clan. The first thought to cross his mind was that something had happened to Goliath along the route to the safehouse. He was not ready to assume the roll of clan leader permanently. It was too soon. Goliath was still young and vital with a good many years before him as their leader.

The others surrounded Brooklyn as the billionaire came to a stop before him. They all noticed the look on the human's face, the tension in his shoulders as he glanced at each of them. His eyes locked on Brooklyn's and he took a breath.

"There's been an accident," he began and the gargoyles seemed to gasp collectively. He held up a hand to stall the questions he knew were about to assault him, "Goliath is fine, the detective, however, is not. Maza is at Manhattan General. She's in a coma. They're not sure she'll survive the next twelve hours."

The silence was punctuated by Angela's single sobbing breath as she leaned into Broadway for support. Hudson put a hand on Brooklyn's shoulder and Lexington wrapped his arms around Bronx. _The cat's out of the bag_ , Xanatos thought bitterly. He had come to respect Maza, even like her spirited way. It did not seem right that she lay in a hospital facing possible death surrounded by strangers. 

"Does Goliath know?" it was the only question Brooklyn could bring himself to ask in that moment.

"He does. Apparently Demona _attacked_ her shortly after her car rolled down an embankment. It was fortunate that Goliath and Bluestone doubled back to look for her when she missed her check-in time. They prevented Demona from murdering the detective outright." Xanatos paused as if to compose himself. "I won't lie to you, her condition is grim."

"That night Demona was in the parking garage, she must have done something to Elisa's car." Lex voiced the thought that sprang to his mind. 

"I agree, which is why I have a crew going over the detective's car looking for anything the police might have missed." Xanatos nodded and directed his answer toward the smaller gargoyle.

"Where is Bluestone? Is he bringing Goliath back? He'll want to see Elisa in case....," Broadway asked and could not finish the last. They all knew what he was getting at, but no one wanted to give voice to it.

"Aye, Goliath be in a bad way if somethin' happens to Elisa," Hudson finally put words to what everyone else had been thinking. "He be needin' his clan 'round him more th'n e'er."

*****

It was nearly midnight when Bluestone and Goliath arrived at Manhattan General. Gargoyles might have become a reality to the world, but that did not mean they were accepted. The hospital staff refused to allow Goliath inside. They feared he would frighten the patients. As Elisa had yet to be moved to a more private location, he would have had to pass through the ER waiting room. He was informed they would be sure she was moved to a room with large enough windows to accommodated him. Until then, he was to remain outside and out of sight. It rubbed him the wrong way, but his hands were effectively tied.

So it was that the Wyvern Clan leader stood silent vigil on the rooftop. The wind pulled at his wings and hair, but he had no heart to answer its call. A deep sadness had settled over him. Matt had come in search of him a couple of times to update him on Elisa's condition. There was little change. The doctors called it a coma. They suspected it was a combination of traumas that had triggered. Her body's defense against the injuries of her doubled ordeal, they had claimed. They could not say when or even if she would awaken from it.

Matt had told him they were not even sure if she would survive the night. That little piece of information gnawed at him, tore at his heart in a way nothing else could. He could still lose her. How many time had her life been in danger because of him and his clan? He wandered then, would she have been better off if she had never met them? True, her job was dangerous. She might still face death if he were not apart of her life. Demona might never have had reason to attack her so many times over the years. She would have had no reason for her attempted murder the night before. He shook his head, dismissing the thought. She still would have faced many dangers without him. There were several instances he could recall that she might not have survived if he had not been there to save her. It was a tangled web of thought he was navigating with no right or wrong answers.

That night dragged into more than a week. Goliath barely left that rooftop during those long nights. He rarely ate as he remained steadfast in his vigil. The hospital staff had failed to move Elisa to a room with working windows. He was unable to enter her room. His only means of seeing her was through a large window that did not open. Then he had to glide down several floors and dig his talons into the cement wall near that window. It took great care to grab onto the same set of marks each time in order to prevent the structure from being weakened.

The clan hounded him to return to the castle, but he could not bring himself to leave. Bluestone made regular trips to the hospital and brought him updates on Elisa's condition. From time to time he also brought food and waited until the gargoyle had eaten at least a portion of it. Goliath decided Matt had missed his calling in those moments. The human could be quite the bully. The man should have been a rookery mother.

*****

Owen Burnette stood staring curiously at the woman in the bed. She seemed so much smaller, less intimidating than the detective he had come to know. In a way, he had grown to respect her. She proved an interesting challenge to the puck within him. Never in his wildest imaginings had he ever thought there was more to her than a simple human. Now, however, he could smell it on her, the distinctive scent of Avalon's magic. The same sort of hybrid magic that Alexander possessed. Magic like that only made its presences known in times of great stress. Though the Maza woman had been in many such situations, never before had her life hung so delicately in the balance.

Puck had sensed her the moment her human life had been severed and though he could not interfere in human affairs, there were no such restrictions on him where the Fae were concerned. He had been collecting an artifact for Alexander's training out in the bay when he had felt the snap of a life's thread nearby. When he had realized it was Maza, he could not resist the urge to push her back toward the beach. It had taken some doing, but he had managed to entice the spark of magic within her enough to rekindle the flames of life. He had risked Oberon's wrath in doing so, but there was no doubt that it was a worthy cause. Once the lord of Avalon realized he had missed one of their blood, he might reward Puck.

"My but you are a _strong_ one, aren't you? One wanders how the lord of Avalon missed you," Owen whispered as he brushed a stray strand of hair from Elisa's bandaged face. He raised his right hand to his lips and blew a faint green mist over the unconscious woman. "It's time, Miss Maza. WAKE UP!"

*****

Green fire surrounded her from all around. She had drifted peacefully in a shell of nothingness until now. This fire she knew, it was Avalon's magic. Somehow this did not feel as if it came from an outside source. It felt as if it came from the same place as her intuition. This was hers, it was a part of her. She thought this might be some bizarre representation of her soul. Demona's words swam through her mind. She had called her a half-breed Fae. Could it be true? As the flames enclosed her and slowly collapsed inward, her mind seemed to explode.

*****

The water was freezing and the surface was so far above her. She struggled toward it making next to no progress. Her lungs could take no more and the last breath she had sucked in on the surface exploded out of her. She tried not to inhale, fought it with every ounce of her being....and lost. Her body shuddered, her lungs convulsed and the water rushed in. Drowning in sea water burned like hellfire. She lost her grip on reality, it spun away from her as blackness engulfed her. Thought ceased to exist. She did not know how long she drifted in darkness. It could have been seconds or an eternity. Another presence touched her mind briefly an instant before the ocean surged and vomited her out onto the beach. A hand made of waves pounded her until the water poured from her lungs. She could feel the magic behind it all. It was something she had only ever been aware of as a tingling across the back of her neck. Now it raced over her nerve endings like a warm summer breeze, caressing her, encouraging her to seize the life that was slipping away. She could have pointed to the source in any direction it decided to move. Something within her answered its call and she shied away from it. She was a cop, she was human! How could she be aware of Avalon's magic? It just was not possible. And yet, she had been...

*****

As the green flames drew closer, Elisa realized there was no escape. They surrounded her. The fire would consume her in seconds. These flames had surrounded her mind on a number of occasions and always before she had had an escape of sorts. She had been able to draw a sort of bubble around herself. Reaching for that part of herself, she found it missing. There was only the flame within her. She screamed as the bubble of fire collapsed in on her, searing her flesh, her bones, her very soul in its green light.

*****

A scream ripped its way out of the depths of her chest as the detective sat bolt-upright in the bed. She panted with fear and reaction to the turmoil roiling through her very core. Wildly, she cast her eyes around the room, her head swiveling to allow her to take in her surroundings. Her eyes burned with a light that cast misty green over everything her sight fell upon. She shut them and firmly gripped the sides of her head. The fire no longer burned in her mind. Instead it washed her with a warm glow that seemed to sooth all her hurts at once. It felt similar to the bubble of calm she normally surrounded herself in, but different somehow. The flames had tucked themselves away in a corner of her mind, but would not vanish completely.

After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes again. The green light was gone. The world was slowly returning to normal around her. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them in relief. _What the hell is happening to me_ , she wandered. Why was she suddenly blasting green light out of her eyes like some comic book reject? _Unless_ , she thought, _Demona had been right._ She needed answers and there was only one person she knew who could provide them: Puck.

*****

Matt was about to step into the hospital room when he saw the green light flashing everywhere at once. Cautiously, he peeked around the door. When he saw the source of the light, his jaw nearly hit the floor. Elisa was awake and her eyes were glowing with green fire. She seemed as if she were in a panic when she grabbed her head and shut her eyes tightly. When she opened her eyes again, the light was gone.

Taking a breath to steady his nerves, Matt stepped through the door making sure his footfalls were slightly louder than normal. He did not want to startle her. Who could tell how she might react or what might happen. Her eyes snapped to his and he flinched before catching himself. He saw recognition cross her face and he knew a moment of relief. Whatever was happening to her, Elisa was still in there.

"How you feelin'?" he asked quietly.

"Like I was hit by a bus," she answered with a wan smile. Her expression changed slightly and she looked past him expectantly.

"They won't let him, said he'd _scare_ the patients..," Matt explained as he realized who she was looking for.

Elisa snorted and threw her legs over the side of the bed. She pulled the blankets aside and was shocked to see a cast that went all the way up to the mid-thigh of her right leg. She looked up at Matt with the question clear in her eyes.

"Yeah, you were pretty banged up in the accident. Doc said it was a miracle you managed to take two steps on that.” Matt explained, indicating the leg as he continued. “Dislocated knee, broken tibia, fractured fibula and a ton of strained muscle tissue. Doc says you're lucky it wasn't ripped off in the accident."

"Figures... How long have I been here?" Elisa grumbled and carefully slid off the bed onto her good leg.

Matt rushed forward and tried to stop her. Instead he ended up supporting her as she gripped his shoulder. The cast ended at her ankle so she tested how much weight the leg would take. After a moment, she seemed satisfied and let go of him. Using the edge of the bed for support she made her way to a cabinet she knew would hold any clothing she might have left. When she reached in and grabbed the dufflebag that she had originally tossed into the trunk of her car, Matt bulked, holding up his hands.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Maza?" he snapped at her. “You've only been here a week. That leg is nowhere near ready to take the kind of weight you're trying to force on it!”

"I'm leaving. I have questions and there's only one person I know who has the answers. You can either help me or get out of my way." Elisa barked.

Neither of them had noticed the doctor stepping into the room. Now he made himself known, "Miss Maza, you really shouldn't be up on that leg. You've been in a nasty accident and clearly attacked by a gargoyle. I don't think leaving is a good idea."

"Too bad. I can't stay here....," she grumbled even as the doctor gently, but firmly pushed her back into a sitting position on the bed.

"At least let me take a look at that leg before your transport shows up," the man seemed perturbed with his own words.

"Transport? To where?" Matt suddenly asked.

"To the Eyrie building, Detective Bluestone," Owen answered as he stopped just outside the doorway. The room seemed a bit too crowded for his taste. "Miss Maza's transport is ready and waiting, doctor. I assure you, she shall receive the best care possible in the Eyrie infirmary."

The expressions that played across Elisa's face ranged from shock, to gratitude, to outrage seemingly all at once. "You're just the _person_ I want to talk to....."

"You will, no doubt, require some information. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have once we are safely back within the walls of the Eyrie." Owen stressed his last words.

The meaning was not lost on Elisa. She knew the puck within him could not act unless he was training Alexander. If Oberon sensed his magic otherwise, there were bound to be consequences. She nodded her understanding.

Holding up a bra, she waved it like a flag before the three men. "I'd like to get dressed, if you boys don't mind. This hospital gown is drafty."

There were disgruntled mumbles from the men as they turned and vacated the room. In a matter of seconds, Elisa was alone and searching through the duffle for something loose. She silently thanked whoever had been thoughtful enough to retrieve the bag after the accident. Wiggling into a pair of sweats, she realized her jeans would not have fit over that cast even if they had been in one piece. Once dressed, it became painfully obvious that she was shy one boot and a coat. As she carefully eased herself down into the wheelchair that awaited her, Owen dumped a heavy coat into her lap along with a new pair of boots in her favorite style.

"Courtesy of Mr. Xanatos," he simply stated. "You're going to need them."

Elisa held back the complaint she was about to unleash as she squirmed into the coat. When she was wheeled to the elevator and saw him push the up button, she knew for sure what, or rather who, her transport was. Her heart tingled in anticipation. It felt like an eternity since she had been in his arms.

*****

Goliath waited on the rooftop. Matt had come racing to him from the single door. With much huffing and puffing, the human had informed him that Elisa was awake and being transferred into Dr. Sato's care at the Eyrie building. The gargoyle was to be her means of getting there. There was more, but the man had been reluctant to continue.

When the door opened again, Owen Burnette was helping Elisa out onto the roof. Goliath wasted no time in rushing over to her. He took in the cast and other bandages sadly as she levered herself up out of the wheelchair onto her good leg. Delicately, he scooped her up into his arms as if she were made of glass. When she wrapped her arms around his neck he buried his face in her shoulder and inhaled deeply of her scent. It was her, but something was different. He could not quite put his talon on what it was. It did not matter. She was alive and awake, something the doctors had doubted would come to pass in the many nights since her accident. Now, she was anxious to get away from the hospital. In truth, they both were.

He did not realize tears were rolling down his cheeks when he raised his head to look into her eyes. There was a tender expression on her face as she gently wiped them away. "I'm ok, Goliath."

"You nearly died." he whispered back to her as he carried her toward the roof's edge.

"But I didn't," She paused, a look he could not read passing over her features, "Something happened, I don't know what, but I have a feeling _Puck_ does."

"Puck!" Goliath spat the word. "What has he done now?" 

"I think he might have saved my life," Elisa said soothingly. 

A look of shock replaced the resentment that had been so evident on his face. "Then we shall find out what he knows when we return to the castle."

With that, Goliath stepped off the edge and snapped his wings wide to catch the currents of air. He held his heart's treasure close as the wind carried them high over the buildings. _Perhaps one day soon, she will finally know what she truly means to me_ , he thought, _My Angel of the Dawn_.

*****

More to come. Stay tuned.


	5. A Question of Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goliath and Elisa return 'home' to the castle. Meanwhile, Demona develops another plan to exterminate humanity. Elisa's healing injuries prove more bothersome than she ever thought possible.

I do not own Gargoyles. No copyright infringement is intended with this work. Strong Language and Adult Situations, Reader Discretion is Advised.

The blanket wrapped around her legs fluttered in the wind as they glided above the Manhattan skyline. Elisa's mind turned to the how and why of her continued survival. She had lost count of how many times Goliath's deranged ex had attacked her, both directly and indirectly. Too many, she knew. Yet somehow, she had always managed to survive. The detective had chalked it up to dumb luck for the most part. Now she knew it was something more. The green light projecting from her eyes in the hospital room had been real. There could be no doubt left in her mind of that. She had seen the odd look on Matt's face when he cautiously stepped into the room only seconds after it had evaporated. The flames still licked at the back of her mind. They had not completely receded even when she stepped into the calming security of Goliath's arms. Those green embers remained, just beyond reach, haunting her every conscious thought. She thought she might go mad if she did not find a way to push them out of her direct awareness. Puck had better have some very good answers for her when she finally cornered him. She felt that if the need arose, she might choke those answers from him.

/

Goliath noticed just how quiet, how distracted Elisa seemed as he winged his way through the currents of air. Matt had hinted at something more regarding her awakening, but had refused to speak of it. There were many things the man seemed reluctant to answer when directly questioned. Many more he had merely shrugged off. The gargoyle knew Elisa's partner would be waiting for them at the Eyrie building when they arrived. Perhaps he could ring some answers from him just as he knew Elisa meant to ring answers from Puck.

The very idea that Puck might have somehow been involved in Elisa's rescue from the water grated on his nerves. He should have been there, should have been the one to pull her back from the brink. It had not been possible, however. He had been too far away. Dawn had already taken him for the day when her true fight for survival had begun. _At least_ , he consoled himself, _I was able to prevent Demona from tearing her apart_. The gargess had come far too close to doing just that this time. He dared not consider what would have happened if he and Bluestone had not gone back in search of Elisa. His arms reflexively tightened just a fraction around her at the anxious fear that threatened to engulf him at the thought of losing her. Though their bonding had only just begun, he could sense the change within himself, the need to protect her was deepening with every passing night. This was a chemical change, he knew, something beyond his control. He knew the doctor would want to monitor those changes and compare them to any changes that Elisa might present as well. Dr. Sato found the idea of a gargoyle and a human interacting so closely to be a great curiosity. To Goliath, bonding was meant to be a private time, a time to shut the world out and just be with one's intended. He knew this was something humans practiced as well. Though he could not deny some curiosity in the nature of the process, he much preferred tradition in this matter.

/

Destine Manor was a sprawling estate surrounded by trees and high walls. They added to the ominous appearance of the lot. Dominique stopped her red sedan in the short section of the driveway just outside the gates and punched in the code to open them. As they opened she glanced toward the sculpted gargoyles that adorned each side and smiled. They, at least, would never betray her. Of course, they would not cure her loneliness either. They would never awaken with the setting of the sun. Mere cement sculptures could not replace a real gargoyle. Her smile faded into a sad frown as she pulled her car up the drive toward the manor.

Cold air swirled around her as she stepped out of the car. She pulled her coat close as she hurried toward the front door. The cold did not bother her gargoyle form much, but it nearly froze her human form to death. Her thoughts shifted to the scrolls located in the vault below the house. It would take time to locate what she needed within them, but what else did an immortal have other than time in great abundance. It mattered naught. She had waited a millennium for vengeance. What were a few more weeks or months?

A rush of cold followed her into the house as she closed the door behind her. Once inside, she shed her coat and tossed her keys on an end table near the door. First, she wanted a bath. One disadvantage of her transformation was that she was required to clean herself much more often. When she had been subject to stone sleep, the night's filth was cleared away the following night with the shedding of her stone skin. Now, however, even if she had turned to stone this morning, she would have wanted a bath the following night. She felt a desperate need to wash away the previous night's deeds. Goliath...., she needed to wash him away, cleanse him from her flesh as much as her soul. She still could not fathom why he desired the human female over her. The loathing in his eyes for her had somehow been much more intense than ever before. She was sure it was because of his little human pet. The trouble was, his words coupled with that glare had crushed some part of her heart she thought long since dead. She hated him for that, but she hated Elisa Maza all the more.

If the woman survived her injuries, it would be nothing shy of a miracle. Demona did not believe in miracles. There was simply nature, sorcery and science. She was not convinced science alone would save the human. At least that was some consolation to her own misery. Goliath would be forced to live out his nights knowing he had been unable to protect his pet from her. She would be sure to remind him of that fact with every chance that present itself to her.

Once bathed, she realized there never seemed to be enough hot water or soap to wash away Goliath's loathing glares. Dominique made her way to the kitchen. The other disadvantage of transforming into a human, instead of being taken by stone sleep, was the hunger. Her body seemed to require huge amounts of food in order to sustain her metabolism. Sevarius had once speculated that gargoyles absorbed roughly half to three-quarters of their energy from solar radiation during daylight hours. She no longer had that luxury and so her body required her to eat three times the amount of an average gargoyle her size.

Now, she rummaged through the refrigerator for something appealing. She found a few links of sausage and a ham. These she gathered up and carried toward the table. As she began stuffing her face, she thought about the exact location of those scrolls. The vault was rather big and held a well stocked lab as well. It was the perfect space to perform some of the experiments she toyed with. The Atlantean crystal was a project with vast meaning. She had plans for the power incorporated into it if only she could tap it. There were infinite possibilities.

Meal devoured, the entire ham, to be precise, Dominique headed down the stairs that would take her to the vault. She had not bothered to have a lift installed. The vault required code and retina identification. Without it, the door would not open. She had worried that a lift here might have gotten stuck waiting on verification. Being trapped below ground where her wings were useless had not appealed to her in the least.

Tapping in the code, she leaned in toward the small device set into the wall next to the door and allowed it to scan her. A faint beep followed by her own soft voice confirmed her identity and the door slid open with a hiss. The room inside had the look and feel of Castle Wyvern's old alchemy lab with a few modern advances. As the lights slowly came up, she walked toward a door near the back of the room, carefully depositing the crystal on the table along the way. Again inputting a code, she waited for the door to open. This room was a pressurized cold storage. The door opened with a billowing cloud of dry, icy vapor. As it dissipated she stepped inside. This room was nearly twice the size of the lab and filled with row after row of shelves. Each shelf contained ancient scrolls, tomes and artifacts. She had found this was the best way to preserve ancient text in all its forms.

Near the end of this room, she began carefully thumbing through a number of scrolls she had long ago flattened and slipped into sleeves of clear plastic. This prevented them from crumbling at her touch. She selected several and, scanning the information, returned to the sanctuary of the lab with them. There was not much that had survived the destruction of Atlantis. These scrolls she had managed to acquire were all the written knowledge of the isle that remained in the world. _Perhaps_ , she thought, _they will prove useful at last_. She had much work to do, much that would require study.

/

Brooklyn looked to the night skies for any sign of Goliath as he had nearly every night since Elisa's accident. Bluestone had not brought them news of her condition this evening as he normally did. The brick red gargoyle's gut twisted with the idea of what that might mean. Elisa was clan, she was like a rookery sister to him. He could not imagine a world without her in it, nor did he want to.

Some nights one of the clan, himself included, would venture to Manhattan General in the hopes of finally being allowed in to see the woman. Always the answer was the same; they would scare the other patients. Goliath had not left the rooftop since the accident. The others had brought him food that he seemed to refuse more often than he accepted. Brooklyn worried that their leader was spiraling down into a grief so deep he might never recover. If something happened to Elisa, he was not sure Goliath would survive it. If he had not known how it was between the two before, he did now, the whole clan did. If the woman survived, he knew it was only a matter of time before Goliath took her as his mate. The brick red gargoyle was not sure how he felt about that. It would be weird, maybe unsettling at first, but he supposed he and the others would get used to it. After all, they had gotten used to a new world and a new time among other things.

The second-in-command started to turn back toward the castle when he glimpsed movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned back to see a large shadow drifting on the currents and moving closer. His eyes slowly began to pick out details as the shadow grew. It resolved itself into Goliath's familiar form just before the large male thumped down into the courtyard. It was clear that he was carrying something precious to him by the way the muscles of his arms bunched around it.

After a moment, Brooklyn saw what it was and inhaled sharply in relief. Elisa rested comfortably in the clan leader's massive arms. She was clearly alert as she looked around with an easy smile at her surroundings. That explained why Bluestone had not updated them on her condition then.

Moments after Goliath landed in the courtyard, Dr. Sato came rushing out of one of the doors pushing a wheelchair. Apparently, he had been expecting them. It was clear by the sour look that sprang into place on Goliath's face that he had no intention of setting Elisa down. The doctor locked the breaks on the wheelchair even as Goliath stepped right past him. Brooklyn struggled to suppress a laugh at the flabbergasted look that pinned itself on the human's face.

/

Owen Burnette watched from a secluded section of the courtyard shrouded in shadow as Goliath touched down with the detective. A smug smile painted itself across his face when Dr. Sato rushed out to meet them. He knew nothing shy of an act of the creator himself would convince the gargoyle to release the precious cargo he so easily carried. Dr. Sato might have to pry the detective from Goliath's cold, dead talons in order to get her into his clinic. The Fae-in-human-form, doubted even then that the woman would stay in the infirmary. They were, as far as he could figure, a perfect match. One was just as stubborn as the other and they complemented each other perfectly. That was much more than he could say for Goliath's last ill-fated union. He thought he might just have to 'bless' this odd union of Gargoyle and human spirit.

Smiling a smile most deserving of the puck within him, he thought how best to proceed. Of course, he would have to work his magic through little Alex. Perhaps he would contact Titania regarding Elisa's emergence, as it were. _Oh how delicious it will be when Oberon realizes he let one of the most powerful hybrids on the planet slip through his fingers._ With all their travels back and forth between the human world and Avalon, he could not see how any of Avalon's own had missed her. He thought it over as he turned on a heel toward a little used door. Nearly all of Oberon's children had returned to Avalon by this point, but the Gathering would not conclude until Oberon himself concluded it. There were those, like Puck himself, who yet lingered in the human world. Then, of course, there was little Alex and who knew how many more like him. Now he knew of at least one other; Elisa Maza, granddaughter of the trickster who called himself Coyote. _How wonderful might it be to offer her up to Oberon in exchange for less restriction on magic_ , he wandered. The lord of Avalon might even allow him to train her alongside little Alex. That, he knew, would be the best way. It would, perhaps, be the only way as neither Elisa nor Goliath would ever agree to be separated. _Besides_ , he thought, _I like the big guy and he's been through so much._ It would not be fair to put him through even more. Oberon would just have to make do with his proposal.

The normally stiff facade of Owen virtually bounced through the door and headed for his private chambers. In the morning, when little Alexander was awake, they would contact the boy's grandmother via the mirror he had retrieved from Demona's estate. He would plead his case to the queen and seek her counsel. Once she heard his plan, he knew she would iron out any wrinkles in that plan. Then, together, they would approach her husband. If all went well, he might have access to a good deal more of his innate power by the end of the week. He knew it could very well take that long for Titania to convince Oberon to hear her out.

/

Goliath glared at the doctor as he came charging up to him with the wheelchair. "I will carry Elisa." was all he said and stomped past the human.

Elisa suppressed a snicker at the look on the doctor's face as they passed him. Clearly the man had other ideas about where she was meant to go once they arrived at the Eyrie. She would happily go wherever the big gargoyle decided to take her. It would be his legs that would carry her there, after all.

Goliath glanced at her and the stern expression dissolved, slightly. As he carried her into the castle, she realized he was not heading toward the infirmary. Instead, he turned down a corridor that would take them toward his private chambers. She found she like that idea better than the sterile environment the doctor meant for her to occupy.

"Goliath,...if I may...," the doctor had abandoned the wheelchair and hopped along before them. He was trying to face them and maintain the gargoyle's pace down the hall at the same time. "You're going the wrong way for the infirmary."

"I am aware, doctor. I am not taking Elisa to the infirmary. She will be more comfortable in our chambers." Goliath grumbled and tried not to step on the man.

"Our?" the man asked wide-eyed as he stopped causing the gargoyle to stop as well.

"You may attend her there. Bring whatever equipment you feel is necessary. I will make room for it," with that, Goliath stepped past the flabbergasted human and continued on toward his quarters.

"That's one way to avoid an explanation," Elisa said with a smirk.

"He understands much in regards to medicine, but I fear he would not understand the nature of our relationship. If it becomes necessary, we may need to enlighten him."

Elisa relaxed just a bit. Her muscles had tensed when the doctor seemed about to ask more questions. She snuggled into Goliath's chest when she thought of how he had phrased his explanation for heading toward his quarters. _'Our' chambers,_ she thought to herself. _I think I like the sound of that._

It did not take long to reach the room in question. They stopped before the heavy double doors that led to the quiet sanctuary of his chambers. Goliath supported her with one large hand while he fumbled with the door handle. Carefully, he put a shoulder into the solid wood of one door and pushed it open. Stepping in, he hit a small switch near the door with the hooked vestigial thumb of one wing and soft light filled the chilly room. The thought bubbled to the surface of Elisa's mind that he had just carried her over the threshold of what was to be their living quarters for the next several months as her leg healed. A shiver passed through her that had little to do with the chill of the room.

Goliath noticed the shiver and glanced between her and the unlit fireplace. Carefully, he set her down on the love-seat and made sure she was comfortable before turning his attention to lighting a fire. In a matter of moments, he had a crackling blaze started and stepped back to admire his handiwork.

“I am sorry the room is cold, my love. I have not been here in many nights...,” Goliath said quietly as he turned back to her.

Elisa looked at him curiously and asked, “Were you on the hospital rooftop the entire time I was there?”

The big gargoyle knelt down before her and nodded as he took her hands in his. He settled himself into a more comfortable position and brought her hands to his lips. Her scent surrounded him and his eyes slid closed. He had feared he might never see her again after the accident and Demona's attack. When she gently slipped one of her hands from his, he opened his eyes and locked gazes with her. She ran that hand through his hair and enticed a sigh of contentment from his very soul. It was the gargoyle equivalent of a lover's kiss and she had taken up the custom as easily as he had human kisses.

Elisa combed her fingers leisurely through the length of his hair. From the way his face relaxed she knew he was greatly enjoying her touch. When she stopped he hesitated only a moment before rising up onto his knees. Gingerly, he leaned in and captured her lips with his. One hand made its way into her hair of its own accord. A passion he had not known in a millennium began to build in him and he hastily drew back from her. He could not allow himself to lose control. Her human body was much more fragile than a gargoyle female. Her recovery from her injuries must come first. Then and only then would he even consider allowing their relationship to progress to something more intimate. He would not risk injuring her further.

Frustrating though it was, Elisa understood why he took such stern control of himself so suddenly. She knew he did not want to hurt her. With her leg in that cast and the other healing injuries, it would not take much to cause her pain. Once the cast was off, however, she was not going to let him off the hook so easily. Fox had sent something to her apartment a few weeks before the accident that she intended to use to her full advantage as soon as she was physically able.

Now, instead of making him feel bad for his sudden reluctance, she smiled and said, “Are you hungry, 'cause I am starving. Do you think Broadway would whip us up something?”

“He may already be in the kitchen. The rest of the clan will be looking for late night snacks by now.” Goliath answered and got to his feet.

“I didn't mean you had to go....,” Elisa protested and realized with a disgusted look at her leg that she could not go herself.

“I had better find out what he has ready before he eats it himself. I won't be long....don't try to get up,” with that he turned and headed for the door.

Elisa sighed in frustration as the door closed behind him. Again he had managed to escape answering any questions she might have thought of. He had also escaped pushing forward into more intimate territory....for now. It would happen sooner or later, but that did not make her wait any easier. As for getting up, there was little chance of that happening unless she was really desperate. The cast effectively put her on lock-down. She would not be able to maneuver herself around much without help. It was just dumb luck that she had been able to make her way around the hospital room in search of her clothes earlier. Now that the pain was settling over her, she wished she had not been so stubborn.

/

Dr. Sato caught up with Goliath as he made his way to the kitchen. He had stopped and stared in open-mouthed shock when the gargoyle had carried his human passenger straight into his room and firmly closed the door in his face. He had seen, in the last weeks, how Angela and Broadway treated the room Xanatos had granted them. In his mind, it was a nesting room of sorts. If that was how they treated private quarters, he could only guess at how their leader might treat his. Since Goliath seemed to only have eyes for the detective, he had to wander about the true nature of their relationship. Could it be that the girl and gargoyle were lovers? Was something like that even possible? He thought of the clan leader's great size versus Elisa's and nearly swallowed his face at the images that popped unbidden into his mind. He quickly shook his head to dispel them.

“Do you require something, Doctor?” Goliath glanced over his shoulder at the human male and slowed his pace for the other to catch up.

“Oh, yes, no, I mean I was on my way to the kitchen.... Here, Elisa will need these, one every four hours for pain,” he said producing a couple vials of pills from his lab coat. “and these three times a day to prevent infection. While you're awake, make sure she takes them. I'm sure you know how stubborn that woman can be.”

The gargoyle took the pair of bottles into a hand that made them look more the size of gun casings. “I will make certain she takes them.”

The doctor gave the gargoyle an odd look and appeared about to say something else, then closed his mouth instead. There was a clearly troubled look on his face.

“Was there something more, Doctor?”

“Well, actually, yes... Call me Jay. This 'doctor' business seems too official with all of us under the same turrets. I...,” he began and suddenly shook his head. “Never mind. I don't think I wanna ask the next question.”

Goliath had anticipated the question and was prepared to answer it in a fitting way. Something he thought the human might find acceptable under the current circumstances. “Elisa and I...our relationship is complex, but...”

“Oh, I didn't mean to pry,” Jay said hurriedly, the pinched look intensifying. “I just, well.....I guess I did mean to pry, but out of scientific curiosity.”

The clan leader eyed him uncomfortably for a moment. He stopped to look the human straight in the face. Perhaps his stern glare would be enough to deter the current line of questioning. If not, then he might find himself forced to answer questions he would rather not.

“I'm sorry, but you have to understand, I'm her physician now. Yours as well, in reality. I need to know the details....in case something goes wrong with your health....either of you.” there, he'd voiced his concerns as delicately as he could. Now it was up to the gargoyle to volunteer the necessary information.

“I assure you, Doctor, our relationship has not progressed far enough to cause concern. _If_ or _when_ it does, I will take great measures to ensure Elisa's safety......at any cost.” there was a finality to his last words that left the doctor frozen in his spot as the gargoyle moved on down the hall.

_Yikes_ , he thought, _and I thought Maza had a powder keg temperament. Note to self: do not piss off the big purple gargoyle. He might squash you like a bug._ With that, he decided he did not really want that midnight snack as badly as he had first thought. Instead, he headed back the way he had come and disappeared toward his own quarters.

/

Elisa had managed to prop her cast encased leg up on several pillows on the love-seat. Her attention was completely focused on the book in her hands as Goliath pushed the door open. Broadway followed him and between them they carried enough food to feed an army. They set the meal up on a small folding table Goliath produced form some hidden nook while she continued to ignore them.

Goliath noticed the book and came around the love-seat to glare at her. “I thought I said not to get up...”

Elisa glanced up from her book, “Yeah, well, I was bored.”

“You could have injured yourself,” Goliath grumbled.

A twinkle of mischief sparked in her eyes and she stuck her tongue out at him. Then she turned back to the book and creased the corner of a page to mark her place before closing it.

The gargoyle raised a brow-ridge questioningly at her. They had had little time to truly explore each others more playful sides. He could not remember her ever seeming quite so relaxed. As she shifted, he noticed her face suddenly pinch in pain and he remembered the pills Dr. Sato had give him for her. He took those from his belt pouch and handed them to her. “The doctor says you are to take them per the instructions on the bottles.”

“You know I hate taking pills, right. They mess with my head, make me feel crazy.” she grumbled as she set them on the end table near her.

“Elisa....,” there was a clear warning in his voice as he drew out her name.

Eyeing him in irritation for a moment, she finally relented, “Alright, I'll take them, but I don't have to like it. _You_ might not like it much either when I get all weird.”

“We will deal with that when the time comes. You are in pain and those will help.” Goliath said soothingly.

“Hey, you know, I'm gonna go. Angela wanted me to meet her in the library tonight...,” Broadway said, thumbing the direction of the door and clearly looking for an excuse to escape what felt like a private moment between the clan leader and his 'mate'.

“Give Angela my best, Broadway,” Elisa said from her mound of pillows and the throw she had snatched from the back of the seat.

The aquamarine gargoyle smiled and waved awkwardly as he hastily pulled the door shut behind him.

“What do you suppose has gotten into him?” Goliath asked thoughtfully.

Elisa sighed and smiled coyly up at him, “You know, us, here....in your nest... Maybe it felt a little too....adult....for him. I mean, you did say he and Angela were still in the bonding phase.”

“I had not thought of that,” Goliath said thoughtfully as he glanced at the now closed door.

“Yeah, well, there's a lot to be said for his respect of his clan leader's privacy,” she said softly.

Goliath moved to the folding table and made up a plate of steaming food. He brought it to her with a change of subject. “When will Puck begin to answer the questions his human counterpart promised?”

“Tomorrow afternoon. When he was helping me to the hospital roof, Owen said he wanted Alex awake and no distractions. I guess he meant you....,” Elisa stated, as she popped a morsel of meat into her mouth and watched the expressions roll over his chiseled features.

Goliath growled softly at the choice of words. He was not happy being excluded from the conversation. Puck, in his opinion, was not to be trusted no matter the circumstances. With Elisa, he trusted him even less than normal. If the Fae had saved her life, as she had insisted, then he was grateful to him, but the puck had a long way to go in order to earn even a measure of his trust. “I do not like this. You will be unprotected.”

“I'll be fine. Goliath, he could have let me die out there in the bay, but he didn't. Doesn't that count for something? Doesn't that at least earn him a little trust that he won't do something stupid while you're asleep?” Elisa really felt he should give the Fae one more chance. True, the annoying little man had done many things to offset that trust, but he was a trickster, after all. That was what they did best.

“I suppose you're right, but I do not have to like it.” he repeated her earlier words back to her and took a small, yet decidedly wicked pleasure in the sour look she threw at him. It had not been lost on her.

They ate and enjoyed each others company all the while continuing to throw out the occasional question in the game that she had started nearly a month ago. There were still many questions he left unanswered. He knew it frustrated her, but he simply could not find the words to explain the answers. Those questions, to his mind, would fare better as show rather than tell, therefore, they would need to wait. By the time their meal was finished, he had relaxed against the love seat, his head resting on Elisa's good leg. His hunger finally sated, he began to drowse. It was a sign of just how comfortable he was with his companion that he allowed his guard to slip so low. There was only trust and love within the walls of his nesting chambers. This was how it was meant to be among gargoyles. It was something he had never taken part in with Demona. It seemed she had always been too distracted or angry to indulge in anything so intimate.

Just before sunrise, Goliath carried Elisa to the bed. She had fallen asleep with her hands in his hair. Now, he carefully pulled back the covers and laid her in the bed. She snuggled into the bedding as he tucked it around her. He watched her for a moment as she smiled faintly in her sleep. _So beautiful_ , he thought. Now that she was here, he did not know if he would be able to let her go when it was time for her to return to her apartment and her job. Fortunately, there would be time enough to consider how that might work. Her leg would be in that cast for many more weeks. In that time, he thought he might convince her to remain in the castle on a more permanent basis. Of course she would return to work, but she might do that from any place she considered home.

Lingering a moment longer, he realized the sun was about to crest the horizon. If he intended to take his place with his clan, he must go now. Otherwise, he would be spending the day in that very spot. Hurrying from the room, he made his way to his daytime perch. No sooner than he had hopped up onto his perch and crouched than stone hibernation took him.

/

Elisa groaned as the pain from her leg woke her hours later. True to her promise, she took the pills Goliath had left on the nightstand for her. She propped herself up in bed and looked around the room for a moment. _How_ , she thought, _am I supposed to get to the bathroom_? Her train of thought was derailed the instant she shifted toward the edge of the bed. Pain, horrible and searing welled up from her middle as her stomach rebelled against the medication. She doubled over and tried to breathe through it. Her first coherent thought was to wander if the seat-belt had done some major damage during the tumble down the cliff. Surely the doctors would have found that kind of injury in the week she had been comatose.

As the pain finally subsided, Elisa pulled herself up out of bed with the aid of a nearby nightstand. She made it to the bathroom door just as another round of pain slammed into her. There was nothing to grab onto and she crashed to the hard stone floor. She heard the cast crack against those stones distantly. Curling into a ball, she begged the heavens that the pain would pass. Groaning, she wrapped her arms around her middle. _Worst gas ever,_ she thought even as she realized it could not possibly be gas.

Elisa's growl of pain and frustration could have rivaled that of a true gargoyle female at the sound of a knock at the door. There was no way she was getting to that door to answer it. She highly doubted anyone outside it would hear her even if she screamed at them. Finally, she managed to call out through the pain anyway.

“Come in!” she snapped at the individual who knocked for a second time.

“No need to be so testy, Miss Maza” Owen said as he opened the door, little Alex in his arms. Upon seeing her, he set the baby down on the floor and knelt beside her.

Elisa, eyes flashing in anger, glared at him. Another wave of pain washed over her and the veins in her neck stood out. Her stomach heaved and the pills she had taken came rushing up in a thick soup of putrid liquid.

“I expected something like this might happen,” the majordomo said as his eyes turned to the baby crawling toward them.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Elisa gritted.

He needed her confused, needed her frustrated in order to gauge how deeply her access to magic might be buried. What he did not need was her human flesh to rebel against the life that had been forced back into it. He had seen this only twice before. Once, the Fae half had survived, barely. However this went, he had little time to act. His intervention here would be limited due to Oberon's restrictions on his magic. Whatever he did, it had to be in the form of a lesson for Alex. He thought for a long moment while the human writhed on the floor before him. With a plan solidifying in his mind, he reached for the baby.

“Pay attention, Alex. Uncle Puck is about to show you how to strip the decay out of a Fae.” As he had taken the child into his arms, the facade of Owen faded away and was replaced by his true form. Raising one hand, he began to cast his spell. “Thrice brought forth from death's embrace, a hybrid born of human race. Elisa-Fae, be thou free. Let knowledge be the key for thee. Remember well the words of spell. Listen each and every cell. Dwell in human form you may, but by moon's light be thee Fae.”

“Goliath was right, you can't be trusted! What did you just do?!” Elisa snarled at the trickster even as green streamers of Fae energy began to swirl around her. They reminded her of the energy that had flooded her body the night Puck had transformed her into a gargoyle. Real fear began to grip her heart as she was slowly engulfed in a mesh of green.

“Just relax and let the magic do its job. You won't feel a thing. Maybe..... Think, Elisa, if I wanted to hurt you,....well...,” he spread his hands at the obvious.

She could not move nor could she speak. The magic of Avalon surrounded her in the very same way it had in her mind. It felt as if her bones were melting from the inside out. She wanted to scream and could not force the sound past her lips. A feeling spread over her flesh as if a million fire ants were eating away at her all at once. In seconds even the outside world seemed to cease to exist for her. The green flames in her mind encircled her, consumed her, burned her to ash and when she thought she could take no more, the sensations increased.

If anyone had seen what was happening, they might have thought Elisa had burst into green flame on the floor. She wished a million times over that she could get her hands around the spindly little trickster's neck. More than that, she wished this new nightmare would end. Eventually even thought was engulfed and evaporated. There was nothing but the green flames of Avalon's magic coursing through the room.

/

Puck sat back and admired what he had wrought. The human woman before him virtually dissolved and vaporized within the purifying fires of Avalon. There was strong magic buried deep in her core, he could sense it even now. His spell had merely awakened that magic. It was her own magic which would destroy the corruption that was eating away at her flesh from the inside. The trouble was that it might well destroy her entirely. Only a few survived this sort of destruction. Elisa, he was sure, would be one of them. At least he hoped she would be. She was his bargaining chip, after all. He needed her in the plan he had carefully laid out to Titania.

Little Alexander took in the lesson his mentor had worked. His infant mind grasped the strands of magic curiously and held each one for several brief seconds at a time. Though he did not truly understand the complexity of the spell, he saw the changes it invoked. Those changes were necessary, he could see that clearly. There was a sickly corruption building within the woman's flesh. Her 'death' had taken quite the toll on her physical form. If Puck had not invoked this change, she might have rotted away from the inside out for weeks to come. Her body would have eventually failed and her mind would be lost in sickness. She might have becoming little more than a walking corpse. Now, she had a chance to be like him, but she had to want to live. He poked Puck and cooed at him.

“What's that, Alex?” Puck asked his young 'nephew' as he tuned into the child's thoughts. “Oh yes! That's the answer. Goliath will be expecting to find his lady love here in their little love nest tonight. I would hope he doesn't find a greasy spot of green goo in her place.”

The baby waved his arms and a bright trickle of green energy misted around his chubby little hands. Puck eyed him proudly. The child was attempting to work healing magic into the threads of his 'uncle's' spell. _Now why_ , Puck thought, _didn't I think of that_. It took very little effort to nudge the boy's energy flow in the right direction.

/

Elisa screamed as thought began to coalesce once more. It was a slow process. She grabbed for the scrambled images of her life, thoughts, feelings, anything that flickered within the essence that made up who and what she was. As those elements began to rebuild her core, she held and examined each one of them. She thought she found the link to her Fae heritage. It was so obvious now; Coyote, the trickster, was her grandfather. The pieces began to fall into place much faster with that knowledge. Memories of the wreck and the sea presented themselves to her. She now saw the magic inherent in the waves that had washed her ashore. Those very waves had pounded the water from her lungs and forced breath back into her. There was more. Her initial escape from Demona had been a frantically blind reach for the magic at her center. She had drawn enough energy into herself that it was shear luck she had not destroyed them both in that moment. Then there was the electrical jolt that had restarted her heart in the squad. That had not been Puck's magic, it had been her own. Her will to live, her burning need to rejoin Goliath, had brought forth a power that might rival even Demona's understanding of magic. She realized that Goliath was, beyond a shred of doubt, her soul's one true mate and she could not exist without him. Nor, she realized, could he exist without her. They were eternally bound. The magic within her had seen to that the moment she had first kissed him. He might well be the key to the release of that magic.

Still, the flow of time around her seemed an eternity before she finally felt the solidity of the cold stone floor beneath her flesh. Flesh, the shocking realization came to her. She once more had flesh wrapped about her essence. It was faint, thin at best, barely more than a veil. Mimetic flesh came to mind as she drew an image of herself firmly to her mind. She felt the flesh grow firm, more solid as if she were pulling her body from the very air around her. Confusion threatened to overwhelm her as she lay there. _Did that really just happen?_ , she wandered. _And where is Puck?!_

A sudden sneeze brought her attention to the here and now. Elisa cautiously opened her eyes and found herself still on the floor near the bathroom. A shiver overtook her as she realized she was alone. The thought occurred to her that Puck might not have known if she would survive his awakening spell or not. She grimaced when she realized she understood what it was he had cast. It was as if she could taste the residual magic on the air. There were two distinctive patterns. One near to ancient and refined, the other new and bordering on chaotic. She had expected the trickster's magic to be the chaotic type, but it was not so. It seemed little Xander's magic was chaotic due to his young age. _Xander_ , she thought, _how do I know he likes that name so well_? She wandered how she was even aware of the patterns of magic. They were clear to her now, like flickering bands of faint light that were slowly fading away. Mentally, she focused on one and traced it to its source. The shock rocked her to the core when she realized that tendril originated from herself. Then she saw the residual corruption it had been mingled with and nearly vomited. She would have become little more than a zombie if not for Puck and Xander's intervention. Another shiver passed over her as she realized Puck had saved her life for the second time. Exhaustion washed over her as a third shiver surged through her. Consciousness fled her grasp as weakness overtook her.

/

Goliath exploded from his stone encasement with a roar as the sun sank below the horizon. Something did not feel right, but he could not pin down exactly what it was. Had Puck done something, he wandered. Could Elisa have been in danger as he had feared while he slept? He did not know and that was what sent icy fingers of dread racing up and down his spine. If the trickster had done something terrible to Elisa, there would no safe haven on the planet that would shield him from Goliath's wrath.

The double doors, when he came to them, were firmly closed. There was no outward indication that anything was out of sorts. Cautiously, he laid a hand to the handle and opened the door. As it swung open, he scanned the room. His eyes widened in horror when he saw her lying on the floor near the bathroom. He wasted no time rushing toward her and dropping to his knees. Hands hovering over her, he feared what he might find when he touched her. As his hands came into contact with her flesh, he knew a moment of relief. She lived, but she was burning up.

Carefully, Goliath lifted her limp form into his arms. She felt so small, barely larger than a juvenile gargoyle. Her body felt as if it might burn his flesh as he tucked her close and all but ran for the infirmary. How many times would she face death because of him, his clan or the magic that Avalon had exposed her to? He could not bare to entertain the question. Lady Titania had once given him a vision of what Elisa's life might have been if she had never met the clan. Elisa might have died long ago. She would have died a hunter if she had never known them. He knew her, knew she would never have entertained the idea that they were not people. That was not what destiny had chosen for her. On some level he had dared not try to understand, he knew that.

/

Dr. Sato's attention snapped up from his paperwork to the infirmary's main entrance as it burst open. Goliath nearly tore the doors from their hinges in his haste to carry Elisa's limp form inside. From the look on the gargoyle's chiseled face, he realized the woman was in serious trouble. Had she fallen? Banged her head? From the cracks in the cast, it was clear something had happened. For the moment, all he had were a number of questions. He rushed over to the gurney that Goliath was gently placing her on. If he were being honest with himself, he had hoped not to see her again for a good many more days. Surely, she could not be that fragile. Of course, there was a high risk of infection possible with the severity of her injuries. He could only hope that it was not something life threatening. In his opinion the woman had been through more than her share of that sort of thing.

“How long has she been like this?” the doctor asked as he popped a stethoscope out of nowhere.

“I found her in our chambers this way,” Goliath answered, backing out of the doctor's way.

“Oh come now, Goliath. You worry too much.”

At the sound of the trickster's voice, Goliath snarled, his eyes snapping to white-hot rage. He stalked toward the Fae with the clear intent of ringing his neck. Puck zipped toward the ceiling with a yelp and Goliath bellowed, “ _What have you done_?”

“I thought you'd be happy. I saved your would-be mate's life.......again. She really needs to stop all this damsel in distress stuff for awhile. It's getting old.” Puck whined.

The white light of anger faded from Goliath's eyes as the words sank in to his adrenaline soaked brain. What had the puck needed to save her from? He had not been aware that she was still in any kind of danger from her injuries. The shock was evident in his slow question. “What?”

“Oh, my dear Goliath, did you really think I was just going to let a creature as strong as your Elisa slip through my fingers? Now that I know what she is.....,” Puck purred with an open chuckle as he zipped dizzyingly around the room. “Big daddy Oberon will be sooooo pissed when he realizes she slipped by right under his nose.”

Goliath glared at the trickster for several moments before his words struck a cord. There was a note of uncertainty in his voice when if finally came, "What are you saying? Elisa is not a Child of Avalon."

"Oh, but, she is! As it turns out, mom and dad are oh so boring normal. So is the rest of her family, if you can call her brother 'normal'. But Grandpa, well, now, that's another story. Good ol' Grandpa Coyote. Always knew he was having way too much fun with the natives." Puck hooted and flipped upside down before Goliath.

The big lavender gargoyle's eyes widened in shock as he searched the Fae's face for the truth of his words. He saw no obvious deception in the other's eyes. Slowly he said, “Elisa will not willingly return to Avalon, if that is what you are getting at.”

“That's the beauty of it....,” Puck began excitedly. “She doesn't have to. I'm here, I can train her just as easily as Alex. Oberon will surely reward me for sniffing her out. Oh, to behold Avalon's shores once more......,” that last was a wistful sigh.

"How can you be certain Oberon will not attempt to take her to Avalon?" Goliath growled.

"My husband has no interest in taking on the training of a hybrid, no matter how powerful she may be," a familiar female voice came from the infirmary doors as Anastasia stepped in.

Goliath turned to see the human form of Avalon's queen and paused a moment to think how very convenient her sudden appearance seemed to be. He was certain she must have been listening in from somewhere. The pieces were falling into place for him as he realized that everything that had happened up to that point was somehow connected to Avalon and its inhabitants. It all seemed a little too coincidental to be happenstance. He glared at the woman as she crossed the room to Elisa's unconscious form. The desire to step between the queen of Avalon and his 'mate' was nearly overwhelming. It took an act of sheer will to maintain his place, but his tail thumped the floor angrily of its own accord.

Anastasia stopped by Elisa's side and ran a hand little more than an inch over her face. She sampled the energy flow around the woman and her eyes widened fractionally. "My, but you _are_ a strong one. The wonder is that you ever managed to slip by my lord."

"Didn't I tell you, my lady? Was I right? Is she stronger than your grandson?" Puck bounced to the floor before the queen.

"Have you masked her from me? From your lord, all this time?" Titania dropped her disguise in a moment of outrage as she rounded on the smaller Fae.

"No, my lady. She masked herself. Natural cloaking, if you will. She was tagging her extra sense as 'dumb luck' and never thought more of it. I must admit, I suspected something awhile ago when I turned her into a gargoyle for a few hours..." Puck rambled on.

"You _what_?! _How dare_ you cast a changling spell on a Child of Avalon without express permission!" Titania hissed.

"There was no harm done. I had no choice. The one known as Demona held me in iron and ordered me to destroy this 'human'. I simply didn't want to, so I changed her instead." Puck whined indignantly.

"Whatever she might have been, she is something more than a creature of Avalon now. Perhaps more than a creature of two worlds.... No matter, she is your creature now, Puck. You are responsible for her. I will see to it that Lord Oberon knows this. He will have little choice but to restore your magic if nothing else. I cannot promise he will every again allow you access to Avalon's fair shores, however." Titania turned back to the unconscious woman and sampled the threads of energy around her once more. "She is much like Alex and yet so very different. The noble heart of a gargoyle beats within her. She will know a longing for the skies that few other humans ever have."

"Oh well, what can be done? She will always be what she is...," Puck smirked at his queen's remark.

"Teach her well, Puck. This one may surprise even Lord Oberon in time." and with that Titania was gone.

/

Elisa woke with a start. The surface beneath her was soft. This was not the cold, hard stone of the floor she last remembered. Her surroundings smelled of antiseptic and bleach. Oh so slowly, as if they had been glued shut, her eyes fluttered open. Bright light assaulted them and she blinked against it for several long seconds. The room began to come into focus and she took in the sights. It seemed she was in the infirmary. The doctor must have given Goliath no choice when she blacked out on the floor. There was an I.V. port in her arm that ached horribly. As she shifted, she realized her leg was free of the hip-to-ankle cast. In its place was a compression wrap. She knew for sure now that the fall had destroyed the cast.

Pushing herself up, she struggled to understand exactly what had happened to her. Magic, Avalon's magic had engulfed her, burned her to ash. So why was she still here? How was she still alive? She ached all over as if she had the flu. When she realized Goliath was nowhere to be seen, she leaned back and allowed herself to drift. The dreams would come, she knew. Dreams of the accident, of Demona's attack and the green fire that refused to leave her be. The pieces would eventually fall into place. She would drill Puck for as much information as she could and if he was unwilling, she might well ring his scrawny little neck.

/

Goliath winged through the currents over the city. His arms itched to carry Elisa on patrol, but Dr. Sato had said it could be many more hours before she regained consciousness. The man had said he suspected her condition was due to a bad reaction to the medication she had been given. He had given her something to help counter those effects as well as something else to assist her healing process. The cast, he would address once she was awake.

Now, the lavender behemoth glided gracefully through the night air. The nights of snow had finally ceased and the city was slowly recovering its normal momentum. It was good to get out and glide again. He knew he would drive himself mad if he had ignored the call of the wind too much longer. Elisa was his life, but he was a creature of the sky. It was his domain. He was not arrogant enough to believe that he dominated that domain, however. In an instant, the winds could change. Bad weather could ground even the strongest of gargoyles. He now knew that matters of the heart could ground a gargoyle just as easily.

Goliath thought of Elisa and their future together. He often entertained hopes and dreams of such during his solo patrols. Those patrols were few of late. Elisa usually accompanied him. When she did not, he would take one of the clan with him. He had learned caution in this new world. It was not safe to be caught out alone in such a city. Many things could go wrong. This night had been different, however. He had needed to clear his head, get some air and consider the events of the last few weeks. It seemed to him that Elisa had been through the furnace the last few weeks. There was no telling how many more trials she might face given the change in her core nature. _Different and yet the same_ , he mused thoughtfully. He had always believed there was more to her than met the eye. Now he knew the assumption had been correct. The revelation of her true heritage explained many things.

Wings snapping to catch a sudden change in wind currents, Goliath nearly spiraled out of control for a moment when Titania's words came to mind. What had she meant when she said the heart of a gargoyle beat within Elisa? Surely the magical transformation Puck had cast on her a year ago had left no lingering effects when it had been reversed. He knew something of the affects magic, however. In one such as Elisa, those affects might not wear off so easily. What else, he wandered, might be revealed about the creature who held his heart so firmly?

/

 

 

More to come. Stay tuned.

 

 


	6. Plot Twists and Planning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Elisa recovers both physically and emotionally from the accident and Demona's attack, she realizes just how much she has missed. Brooklyn's timedancing has come and gone. He is older, wiser and now a 'family man'. Demona works on a double plan to wipe out humanity and deal Goliath an emotional blow.

I do not own Gargoyles. No copyright infringement is intended with this work. Strong Language and Adult Situations, Reader Discretion is Advised.

Demona sat sprawled across an easy-chair in one of the many sitting rooms Destine Manor held. She toyed with the Atlantean crystal idly, rolling it across her palm. Boredom slackened her features as she gazed at the glittering facets that sparkled in the moonlight. Many times now, she had failed to tap the power of the crystal. It was just out of reach and she began to wander if it was even possible to access. A thought occurred to her and she tossed the gem into the air before deftly snatching it and climbing to her feet.

There were a few things she had not yet attempted. It was time to put the crystal to a rigorous battery of renewed tests. Spell after spell had failed to access the power within. A good many scientific methods had failed as well. Perhaps it was time to pursue other means. She had not yet attempted to access it while on holy ground. It could well be that the crystal was only active while in such a location. After all, it was required to be on holy ground when it restored the praying gargoyle statue. That had to be the answer, she realized. She had become frustrated during the last weeks in her efforts to tap it. Now she might finally have that elusive answer.

The gargess did not bother with a disguise as she pushed the sliding glass door open and stepped out onto the balcony. She would not need one as she had no intention of entering the building she planned to visit. The crystal would work its magic anywhere on the property. It need not be inside. Launching herself into the night sky, Demona headed for the nearest cathedral in her neighborhood.

/

Elisa had remained secluded in Goliath's chambers for weeks after Dr. Sato released her from the infirmary. At her request, both Goliath and the doctor had kept everyone else out of his chambers, but most especially Puck and his alter ego, Owen. She wanted nothing to do with the trickster for the moment. Eventually, she knew she would have to deal with him. He had answers to questions that burned in her very core. Answers she was determined to rip from his mind if she must. Somehow, she had the feeling she might be able to do just that if she so desired. She did not know what frightened her more; the knowledge that she had more power within her grasp than she had ever imagined or the temptation to use that power.

Still, she tried to make sense of everything she had learned on her own. There was so much that had presented itself to her while in the grip of Puck's awakening spell. Her mind shied away from the flickering green flames that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in the far corners of her awareness. It was enough, for now, that she was aware of it. In reality, no matter how tempting it was, she wanted nothing to do with it. She knew, however, there would come a time when she might have need of it. It was part of her. Apparently, it was the part that her uncanny intuition had always come from. It might also be the part that so firmly linked her to Goliath, the clan and everything else of a mythical or supernatural nature. In any case, it scared her on the most human of levels. Somehow, she suspected the human part of her might be no more, or at least ranked in the minority of her core being now. Most, if not all of what had made her human had been burned away by Avalon's flames. She had been forced to sacrifice her humanity in order to survive that horrible accident, Demona's attack. Puck's awakening spell had burned away whatever was left. She knew now that if she had been wholly human, she would never have endured all the threats that she had. Death would have claimed her a dozen times over by now. Goliath would be left alone in the world, lost and suffering her loss. She did not think he would have survived long after. If he did, she knew with a certainty that rose from her very soul that he would never again take a mate. With that knowledge, came the certainty that she would have lingered by his side even if only in spirit. Both of them would have faced insurmountable torment for a lifetime. It was that thought, the images really, that had driven her to reach beyond herself to drape her essence in flesh once more. She still did not know how she had done it, was not even sure she could repeat it if it ever became necessary. All she knew was that she had and in doing so, she had apparently accelerated the healing of her injuries. She suspected she could have completely healed them if only she had known how.

Now, she sat flexing her healing knee joint as the doctor had instructed. He had not replaced the cast after examining the injury. The man had been shocked at the level of regeneration that had occurred in such a short time. She had refused the tests he wanted to run. It would have meant she would stay in the infirmary for many more days and she could not bare that. She had even refused to see Bluestone and Chavez when they had come to check in on her. Friends though they were, she could not bring herself to share space with anyone other than Goliath at the moment.

The exercise finished, Elisa limped toward the bathroom. She wanted a shower before sunset. Goliath would come check on her before his patrol. Afterward, he would return to spend the rest of the evening with her. Tonight, however, she thought she might join him on his patrol. She had grown tired of her self-induced confinement. It was time for a change of scenery and some much needed fresh air.

The shower, hot as she could stand it, made the bathroom much like a sauna. She took great pleasure in the steaming water as it washed away the remnants of her nightmares. A quiet tapping at the door brought her back to the present as she realized she had taken longer than she had intended. Shutting the water off, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself before going to the door. When she opened it, she was met with a great expanse of taut lavender flesh. She smiled and looked up into Goliath's worried face. The worried frown relaxed, but only slightly as he gazed down at her. She knew she had caused the lines of his face to deepen slightly over the last few weeks and for that she felt profoundly guilty. _Maybe_ , she thought, _tonight that frown will disappear_.

“How are you feeling?” he asked simply. It had become a regular question of late.

“Better...., clearer tonight than I have in a long time,” Elisa answered as she laid a hand tenderly on his chest.

He nodded and glanced toward the darkening window. “The others are about to depart on their patrols. I should join them...”

“Give me a few minutes to throw on some clothes and I'll come with you tonight,” Elisa said hurriedly in an attempt to prevent him from leaving without her.

“Are you certain you wish to come?” he asked, barely concealing the excitement in his voice.

“Yeah, I miss gliding with you. Besides, I think I've had enough of being cooped up for awhile.” Elisa flashed him one of her beautiful smiles, a smile she had not shown him much of over the last few weeks.

“I will meet you on the tower,” he began and turned to go.

“It's ok, I'll be quick,” she said as she stepped passed him and tossed the towel on the bed.

“Elisa!” Goliath gasped as he got a full view of her backside.

“What?” there was a chuckle in her tone as she tossed her clothes on. She wanted him to get used to seeing more of her. It was the only way he was going to get comfortable with the idea of them becoming intimate. If it was ever going to happen, they both needed to be as comfortable with each other as possible.

“You tempt me far too much....,” he growled and turned to face the door.

“Isn't that the idea?” she asked coyly. She received an animalistic snort as comment and could not suppress the giggle that bubbled up. “Ok, it's safe to look now.”

Cautiously, as if he were facing a viper, Goliath turned toward her and found her securely covered in a dark colored turtleneck and a pair of loose fitting jeans. He sighed in relief. As much as he longed to complete their union, he was not quite ready for the reality of it. He knew she was making an effort to normalize their encroaching intimacy before it was thrust upon them in a desperate moment of passion. His fear was that she would trigger that moment if she continued to parade around in the various states of half-dress or less before him. In his eyes, she was a gorgeous creature who held him deeply enthralled. She affected him more than he wished to admit. After all, He was male and subject to all the desires and weaknesses of the gender.

Elisa smiled at the relieved look that had plastered itself on his face. At least it was not the worried frown he had been wearing when he first entered their chambers. She joined him by the door as he opened it and they headed toward his tower. Unable to hide the limp, she stubbornly walked down the corridor at his side. The doctor had told her she would likely need to use a cane in the near future, but she was having none of that. She refused to accept weakness in her own body at such a young age. Instead, she stubbornly pushed the joint beyond its limits.

Goliath noticed the limp and stopped after only a few feet from the door to their chambers. Before she could protest or dodge him, he swung her up into his arms and continued on at a much faster pace. She glared at him and he simply smiled back at her. There was no need for her to strain the healing joint when he could carry her. After all, he would be carrying her while they were gliding anyway. It was a task he greatly enjoyed, but he was not sure he would ever admit it to her.

/

Brooklyn, a much older Brooklyn, turned to see the pair emerge from the trapdoor. He gave Goliath a knowing smile as he nodded to them. His one eye followed them as they joined him near the crenelated top of the tower. He had wandered when Goliath's mate would rejoin the land of the living. _'Future mate'_ , he corrected himself. They had not yet held the all important commitment ceremony. In fact, he doubted they had even consummated their union yet given the vague discomfort that seemed to create tension between them. He hoped they got on with it soon for the sake of the clan.

For him, it was still hard to believe forty years had past and yet they were exactly the same as they had been when he left. He had expected that if he ever returned 'home' he might find himself at least a couple of years past this point. It had shocked him to learn that only forty seconds had passed for them before his return. For the most part, he had avoided learning the future history of the clan during the instances when his timedance had dropped him in the distant future just in case he ever made it back. Even still, there were some things that were impossible to avoid learning. Goliath and Elisa's joining had been one of those things. They had an official ceremony sometime before the year 2000 had rolled around. That bit of news had apparently come out to the world during Goliath's widely televised wind ceremony. He had managed to avoid the discovery of when and how that had come about. Better not to know, he reasoned. Some things, he knew, could not be changed.

Focal points, that was what the Phoenix had shown him. It had not communicated so much in words as in images. It avoided focal points because Brooklyn's presence was not required near them. Only once had it brought him to such a point. That had been in the year 2198. That was the year the space-spawn invaded. He had been swept into the resistance. That had been nasty business. It had cost him an eye and earned him several new scars. He still was not sure if his presence had made a difference, but he had never been more happy to see the Phoenix when it had appeared in all its fiery glory. It had snatched him and his family up and deposited them in Castle Wyvern's courtyard, in the very spot it had first snatched him from. The clan had been shocked at the sight of him and his family. Now he wandered if the Phoenix was truly finished with him. Could it be that he was meant to be here for some major event before it returned for him once more? He shook his head to dispel the idea. _No_ , _I'm home and I'm not leaving again_ , he thought forcefully.

Instead of dwelling on his own past, the clan's past and future combined, he planned to spend as much time with them as he could before Egwardo hatched. Nashville was already a handful and Katana... He could not have asked for a more fitting mate. It had taken a good many years to earn her trust, but he had done so.

/

Goliath nodded back to the older Brooklyn. It was still disconcerting to realize the male was now biologically a few years older than himself. He had become a battle-hardened warrior during his dance through time. The phoenix gate snatched him up just ten days after the new year. Forty seconds, that was how long they had been uncertain whether or not he would ever return. Forty seconds was all the longer it had taken the gate to spit him out. His timedance had lasted forty years. He had returned older, with full maturity upon him. Now he was nearly as tall as Goliath himself, but he would never be as broad. His muscles were honed for a different style of combat. He had not returned to his clan alone, however. Katana, his mate, Nashville, his young son, an unhatched egg and a garbeast had come through the fiery gate with him. That egg may rest in the rookery, but Katana hovered over it protectively several times a night. She was a fine warrior if a little o.c.d.

Elisa, from her perch in Goliath's arms, openly stared at Brooklyn. Goliath had told her what had happened to the male, how the phoenix gate had appeared out of thin air and snatched him up. He had explained how the male had returned a mere forty seconds later with a mate, two kids and a dog. Seeing him now, she still found it hard to believe. True, he wore a patch over a missing eye and his face had aged, but he was still Brooklyn. Somehow, she was not sure she would ever get used to him being so much older, so much more mature. He would always be that reckless brat who got into trouble nearly everywhere he went, to her at least.

If not for being in Goliath's firm yet gentle grip, she might have jumped out of her skin when the strange blue-white gargoyle child with the flowing mane of black hair came dashing out of nowhere toward Brooklyn. She had never seen a gargoyle child before and this one looked very much like his father. His beak was smaller and where Brooklyn had only one set of horns, he had two. If she had to guess his age, she would say he was the gargoyle biological equivalent to a nine year old.

“Dad, Dad....can I go?” the child bounced around excitedly.

Brooklyn looked up at Goliath, who nodded, before smiling down at his son. “Sure, Nash, but stay close. I don't want you flitting off and causing trouble.”

“Awe, Dad, you know I don't mean to...,” the boy whined and then brightened suddenly when he realized he was being allowed to go on patrol with the clan. “You mean it? I can go?”

Brooklyn nodded and patted his son on the head, “You can thank Goliath for giving you a tenth, or is it a twentieth chance..., to stay out of trouble. I've forgotten.”

The boy turned toward Goliath with an open mouthed smile before bounding toward the crenelated wall and leaping over it. His blue-white wings snapped awkwardly into an updraft and he hovered for a few seconds. Brooklyn shrugged and leaped the wall himself to join his son. A moment later a pale female of Asian stock, much the same color as the boy, dashed out from the trapdoor and somersaulted over the wall to join her mate and son.

Elisa stared at the family unit in admiration as they gliding off into the night. She had not yet been properly introduced to Katana or the boy, but she could see that they were fiercely loyal to Brooklyn. In time, she knew, they would fit in with the rest of the clan. Maybe in a few years when their egg hatched and Katana was finally sure her children were safe. _What will it be like_ , Elisa wandered, _to have a real gargoyle hatchling around_? She had never seen one. The closest thing to a hatchling she had seen was Nash and he was far from a newly hatched gargoyle baby. Were they mobile from the start? Did they nurse from their mothers? She knew gargoyle children were generally raised by the entire clan. No child knew his biological parents, but that was not how Nash was growing up. True, the others took a hand in his nightly guidance, but it did not seem the same as Goliath had described. Perhaps not all clans raised their children in the same way. Could it be that the Wyvern clan's traditions were about to dramatically change? She could only wander.

“Are you ready, my Elisa?” Goliath interrupted Elisa's musings by stepping up onto the crenelated half wall.

Elisa looked down the sheer drop from Wyvern's highest tower atop the Eyrie and swallowed hard. The height was dizzying and it had been several weeks since her last glide with Goliath. She snuggled deeper into the warm suede-like flesh of his chest as he stood there waiting for her answer. Her voice lost in the wind that buffet them, she glanced up at his craggy face and nodded. _No time like the present_ , she thought nervously.

Goliath looked down at the small woman in his arms with a reassuring smile just before he stepped off the edge. They dropped several feet before he snapped his wings out to catch an updraft. He felt the tension in her body melt away as their descent ceased and he began to gain altitude. The lavender gargoyle wished he could promise that he would never let her fall again, but he knew there were some promises that were impossible to keep. He would not make such a promise. She would fall again at some point, he could be certain of that, but he would be there to catch her even if he had to move heaven and earth to do it.

“You are safe, my love. I will always be here to catch you,” he rumbled softly, the wind whipping his voice away, but he knew she heard him with her ear so firmly pressed into his chest.

Goliath felt the sigh of contentment against his flesh and knew that she would be alright. Some of his worry washed away with that breath of air. He had feared she would never again be the same after the accident. The tumble down the cliff had injured more than just her body. The night he had brought her 'home' she had been so quiet, so very distant. Then she had locked herself away in his chambers not long after the fateful meeting with Puck. She refused to speak of that meeting. He respected her privacy, admitting only to himself that he would like to know what exactly the trickster had done to her. There was something profoundly different about her since he had found her unconscious on the floor that evening. _Different, and yet the same_ , he thought reverently. The magic of Avalon, ever a faint 'flavor' about himself and the rest of his former skiff-mates, had become much more potent around Elisa of late. It was almost as if her very nature had changed on the most fundamental of levels. Titania had even hinted at that idea, but he had refused to accept it. She was still his Elisa no matter what changes the puck had wrought within her.

So much had happened in the last weeks. He longed to set it all aside and return to a semblance of 'normalcy'. _At least_ , he thought, _what passes for normal for us_. He thought this patrol might be the beginning of that trip back to stability for them. With her earlier exposition, he thought it might also be the beginning of their journey toward the true intimacy they both desired.

/

Demona caught the top most spire of the cathedral and clung to it for a moment. Glancing around, she noticed several outcroppings that might work to her advantage. She needed stable footing to work the spells that might give her access to the crystal's magic. Dangling from a spire in the wind was not a good place to start.

After a moment, she spied the perfect place. A balcony just below the eves. Perhaps, she could make her way inside that tower from the balcony. It would be a place out of the wind, a place to work her magic unseen and unmolested. She found that idea very appealing as she scrambled down the Italian tile of the steep roof. Careful not to dislodge the tiles, she dropped to the balcony and looked around cautiously. It seemed she was still undetected. Nodding to herself, she approached the stained glass window.

Upon examination, she realized it was virtually a small door. She tried the small knob and found it firmly locked. With very little effort, she twisted it and heard the faint squeal of metal as the lock gave way to the force. Carefully, she pushed on the frame and the door swung open with the creaking of rusting hinges. Apparently, this was a little used room. That would suit her needs perfectly, she realized and smiled as she entered the room.

Great gouts of dust puffed up from the old wood floor as she stepped in. Giant cobwebs dangled from the rafters and caught in her hair. She sneezed and waved a hand before her face. There was a thick layer of dust on everything and she wandered if she could cast a spell that would blow it all out the door. The dust would choke her out if she did not try.

Moving to the far side of the small room, she held a hand up before her and began to intone a spell in Latin. A whirlwind kicked up in the middle of the room. It sucked up the dust, dirt and webs easily enough. She guided the currents of air out the door even as she coughed at the whirling dust. In a matter of seconds, she allowed the spell to die. The room was cleared of the choking dust and several sheets had been pulled loose from the objects they covered.

Light was her next priority and she found a large free-standing candelabra. It took no effort at all to light the candles. After a moment, she looked her surroundings over with a critical eye. It was no alchemy lab, but it would due. Unused as it clearly was, she would be able to set up whatever she needed here without fear of being disturbed. For now, she yanked the sheet off an unused alter and placed the crystal in the center of it. There was much to do, many preparations to make before she could cast the first of many spells to unlock the crystal's power. Already, she could sense it. She could almost taste the magic rolling off it in waves. The crystal had begun to glow faintly when she had landed on the spire. Now it practically blazed with energy as it began to pull particles of substance from the very air. It had already begun the process of rebuilding the praying gargoyle. That process would take decades as the crystal rebuilt the object on the molecular level.

A thought came to her then; if she could not tap the power of the crystal, then perhaps she could enhance it. She would encourage the 'growth' of the statue by attempting to accelerate it. What would take the crystal at least sixty years to complete might be completed in, say...sixty weeks instead. That was if she was successful in her endeavor.

/

Elisa relaxed in Goliath's arms as his strong, graceful wings carried them gently through the night sky. It had begun to snow as they made their circuit of their chosen section of the city. That section included the clock tower. The detective thought of her boss as they glided within sight of the building. Chavez had come to the castle to see her a few days ago. She had refused to let anyone in. Not even Derek had been welcome near her in the weeks after Puck had cast his awakening spell. She had not been able to come to terms with the knowledge that most, if not all of her humanity had burned away. In her mind, she was somehow not the same person. She was convinced her family and friends would see that and reject her for it.

Goliath had been the first to break through the walls she attempted to build around herself. He had refused to leave her side that first week. She had raged at him, screamed, cried and yet refused to give him the details of what had happened. When the storm passed, the male who had become her anchor remained. He had not fled her presence as she had feared he would. Instead, he had simply told her she was different and yet the same. His love for her remained. That was all that mattered. He would not leave her and neither would the clan. She had taken comfort in his words and slowly began to accept the changes.

Now she wandered if it was not time to meet with Chavez. The woman was more than her boss, she was her friend and extended family. If anyone else would quickly understand what she was going through, it would be her. Of course, there was the expected return to work to discuss as well. She knew, with her healing leg, it was only a matter of time before she would be forced to return. It was not that she did not want to go back to her job. She just did not want to be on desk duty when she did. Of course, she also knew there would be no choice. She would not be fit enough to resume her normal activities soon. Then there was the undercover job Chavez had chosen her for. She wandered if the woman had gotten someone else involved. If not, that might land on her desk in a gift-wrapped basket. She almost looked forward to the idea. A serious change of scenery might do wonders for her. Plus there was the fact that Goliath would be going with her.

The clock tower was only a few blocks away when she nudged one of Goliath's large pectoral muscles gently. He glanced down at her with a gentle smile.

"What is it, my Elisa?" he rumbled.

"Can we land at the precinct? I wanna talk to Chavez," she mumbled and pointed toward the tower.

Goliath smiled and nodded as he angled their flight toward the tower. They both took in the scaffolding and level of repairs that had been made since the explosion. It was slow progress, but any progress was better than allowing the tower to crumble away. It was enough that the main offices had finally been allowed to move back into the building.

As they circled for a clear spot to land safely, Elisa thought of all that had happened in the few short months since the explosion. One of several memories closest to her heart was the kiss she and Goliath had shared at the top of his tower. She had known then that her feelings for him were inescapable no matter how hard she had tried to run from them. When he had nearly died during the Halloween party, it was driven home to her just how much he meant to her, how much they meant to each other. He was hers in a way she had never dreamed possible, just as she was his. In time, she knew, they would make it official.

Goliath landed with a graceful thump on the scaffolding before the hole that had once held the clock-face. Carefully, he stepped off onto the crumbling stone. He carried Elisa into the ruined top half of the building and looked around at the repairs that had been made. New beams held loose stone in place over more than half of the ceiling. It did not look much safer than it had right after the explosion. He picked his way through the debris toward the attic stairs and paused. The stairs were gone, the wood charred and crumbling. Only a hole remained to lead down into the janitor's 'closet'.

Bunching his massive arms carefully around Elisa so as to protect her, he dropped through the hole and landed firmly on smooth stone. The 'closet' was in much better condition than the attic was. Here the room had been cleared of debris. The door had been replaced and the walls covered in plaster to hide the cracks. It smelled of fresh paint.

Reluctantly, Goliath set Elisa down on her feet and stepped back into the shadows of the room. He was still not comfortable with being seen roaming the halls of the precinct without the captains knowledge of his presence first. He would wait for the all clear before he ventured out. Some of the officers had not reacted well to the reality of his or the clan's appearance when Chavez had insisted on introductions. He did not wish to be shot by a nervous cop.

Elisa waited until he had tucked himself into a corner, effectively dissolving into the shadows, before she opened the door. The hall was clear, but she could hear cops busily going about their tasks not far away. Chavez' office door still hung at an odd angle in its frame and she wandered if the construction crew was ever going to fix it. They had apparently fixed the light inside as she could clearly see the woman silhouetted at her desk.

Making her way down the hall to the woman's office, she tried to think of what she would say. How would she explain why she had refused to see her a few days ago? She was fully prepared to have her head handed to her on a plate over that one.

"Maza! My office, now and bring _him_ with you. I know he's here." Chavez popped her head out the door and bellowed down the hall.

"How does she do that?" Elisa grumbled. She had not made it far before Chavez had popped her head out. She did an about-face and stuck her head in the door of the 'closet'. She could not see him, but she heard the faint intake of breath when the door had opened. "It's alright, Goliath. Chavez wants to see us both."

"Very well," came his grumble as he stepped out of the shadows towards her and the door. Reluctantly, he stepped out into the hall and hastily made his way to the office door. Even still, he allowed Elisa to enter first and stood behind her once they were both safely within the captain's office.

Chavez glanced up at them and did a double take at Goliath in the harsh light of her office. She had only seen him in poor lighting, street lights, rooftop lights, things of that nature. Now she could see him in all his gargoyle glory. His rich lavender flesh was flushed to deeper shades of purple from wind and cold. Indigo wings wrapped around his shoulders like a cape and his hair was not the black she had first thought, but a deep sable-brown. He was magnificent. She could easily see why Elisa was so attached to him. The man was easy to see beneath the beastly facade and she already knew the voice that would roll from that powerful chest.

Gorgeous as Goliath was, he was not her type. She much preferred Hudson with his rich Scottish brogue and slightly less intimidating height. They had been getting to know each other over the last weeks. He was kind, gentle, funny and warm toward her every time they had met up. She thought perhaps she would invite him to her home in a few nights. Maybe he would even stay over during the day. She wanted him comfortable with his daytime vulnerability in her presence. After all, she had come to rely on him heavily for information. If not for him, she would not have known how Elisa was progressing in her recovery. The woman refused to see anyone during her convalescence. The captain could not fault her for that. She had been through the fires of hell if all that Hudson had told her was true. Chavez was not sure she would have made it out the other side herself.

Now she turned her attention back to the pair standing on the other side of her desk. Elisa stood hip-shot before her with Goliath towering behind her, his hands on her shoulders. The protective possessiveness not lost on her, Chavez stood and leaned on her desk. She did not like feeling intimidated by anyone, but especially not in her own office or by people she considered her friends and allies.

"So," she began as she glance from one to the other of them. "I see you're doing better, Detective. How's the leg?"

"It's better, but not one hundred percent yet." Elisa said and indicated Goliath behind her with a thumb, "Goliath mentioned you came to see me the other day."

"I did. Hudson filled me in on what he knows. Brooklyn introduced me to his family. I find the time traveling bit hard to believe, but the proof of his obvious aging doesn't lie. His boy looks like trouble in the making, cute though he may be." Chavez had to stop herself and allow one of the other two a chance to speak.

"Nashville causes much trouble," Goliath grumbled after a moment. "I do not remember Brooklyn being quite so rebellious at that age."

Chavez gave the gargoyle a strange look before speaking, "Hudson told me that gargoyles age at about half the human rate. Soooo....that makes you, what? Twenty-five, thirty at the most? I'm still a little confused."

"I was hatched in 938," Goliath answered simply.

"Yes, Hudson mentioned as much. He also said the lot of you took a one thousand year stone nap and that stone sleep puts you in a sort of suspended animation by our understanding...," Chavez began to run some calculations and her eyes grew as round as saucers.

Goliath could not hide his smirk at the shocked look on the human's face. With a chuckle he decided he should clear the matter of his biological age up for both humans in the room. He was sure even Elisa might not have taken the time to work it out. "By human reckoning, I will be one thousand fifty nine in march. Due to the half-rate of gargoyle aging and discounting the thousand years of stone hibernation; I am biologically twenty-nine."

Elisa glanced back at him with sudden understanding dawning in her eyes. _So_ , he thought, _she was not aware my biological age was so near her own_. Their biological ages were perfectly aligned this year as she had only just turned twenty-nine herself on New Years Eve. _This will be the only time in our lives that we will be the same biological age_ , he thought sadly. He would outlive her by a good eighty years barring an untimely death. It was something he had come to terms with when he had realized he was in love with Elisa. His heart would have none but her. Only she had shown him a love he had never before known. Each night she stayed with him she shared more of herself with him. They had grown closer in a few short years than he and his former mate ever had since their hatching. He could not now imagine his life without Elisa in it, but he knew fate would eventually separate them just as it had brought them together. It was a distant future that he would accept when it came if only it meant that they might remain together until the end. He knew that once she had gone into death's embrace, it would be difficult to find the strength to continue living. Never again would he find love, Elisa would forever be his heart.

Chavez noticed the far off look that swam over the gargoyle's face as one of his hands gently rubbed Elisa's shoulder. If she had ever doubted the big clan leader's feelings toward Maza, those doubts melted away now. There was love in his eyes when he looked down at the small woman before him. That smile softened the stern lines of his face and made him look much younger. All she could think was that he had a striking smile, handsome even. _How could anyone think the gargoyles were monsters_ , she wandered before clearing her throat.

Goliath jumped slightly as his mind snapped back to the present. The look that plastered itself across his chiseled features was one of faint annoyance. Chavez did not think that annoyance was meant for her. She figured it was irritation with himself for allowing his focus to stray.

"Are you ready to come back to work? Has Dr. Sato released you yet? I didn't think he would so soon." Chavez bombarded Elisa with questions.

"Sato hasn't released me yet. I'm still in rehab with the leg, but it shouldn't be long." Elisa answered the most pressing question. She then continued softly, “Look, Captain, I'm not really sure if I'll be ready to come back when he releases me. I've got some......things to work through.....”

"I understand that, Elisa, but I still need you for that undercover case and soon. We've been lucky so far. They haven't changed their location yet, but they have expanded their product. They've started distributing assault weapons along with drugs. Your downtime has actually been a blessing in disguise for this case, but we need to move on them as soon as possible. I want those guns off the streets. We can bust them on both charges, but I need to get you in there to gather as much hard evidence as possible." Chavez chattered on in an animated fashion as both human and gargoyle alike eyed her.

"Are you sure it is wise to send Elisa into such a dangerous situation so soon after her recovery?" Goliath asked quietly.

"Oh, you're still going with her. That plan hasn't changed. She won't be driving herself this time either. I'm not taking a chance on another accident since we can't be sure who cut her break lines." Chavez shot the gargoyle a hard a look.

"We know who cut the lines....," Goliath growled angrily.

"Oh really? I'd like to nail the guy to the ceiling of a cell if you don't mind giving me his name. Nobody takes a crack at a cop and gets away with it on my watch." Chavez snapped.

"Captain, Goliath's ex cut those lines. She also attacked me on the beach...," Elisa said slowly.

"His _ex_?! But I thought gargoyles... I mean Hudson said...," she paused to collect her thoughts for a moment then continued. "Hudson mentioned that gargoyles generally mate for life."

"In most cases that's true, but...," Elisa began feeling awkwardly uncomfortable as she glanced back at Goliath.

"I was mated more than one thousand years ago. That part of my life is over. My former mate is what you humans refer to as the 'crazy ex'," Goliath stated with a bitter expression on his face.

Chavez sat down slowly with a sour look on her face. She had wanted to hear this bit from the gargoyle himself even though Hudson had told her how it was with Demona. Still, there had been a need to confirm for herself that Goliath was, in fact, finished with his ex. She would not even consider sending him with Elisa if she thought otherwise. Now that she knew, she could make arrangements to increase the protection around the detective and her gargoyle companion when she sent them undercover. Since she could not take Demona into custody, given her unique nature, she could at least make sure her officers were safe from the crazed 'woman'.

“We should return to the castle soon. The others will be worried if we are not back before dawn,” Goliath rumbled softly as he gently tightened his talons on Elisa's shoulders.

“Yeah, I haven't left our room in a few weeks. The fact that I'm not there now will probably send Bronx into bloodhound mode pretty soon.” Elisa sighed. To Chavez she said, “I'll let you know when the doc releases me to return to work. We'll talk about that undercover job more then.”

Chavez nodded, she could do nothing more. There was nothing more to be done until Elisa was released. Even then, she knew, the woman might not be ready to resume active duty. The doctor might force the captain to make her a desk-jockey for awhile. Then there was Maza's emotional trauma to deal with. She had no idea how deep that might run, but she was betting the big lavender gargoyle had been taking the brunt of it lately. He looked worn around the edges, bone tired and stressed. Watching someone you loved deal with psychological and emotional trauma would do that. Chavez did not kid herself. She knew it was a waiting game and she was an impatient participant.

/

Once they left Chavez, Goliath made his way up into the attic. No sooner had he climbed up to the ruined clock chamber, he reached down and took Elisa by the hands. He lifted her through the hole with ease. As soon as she was on her feet, he opened his arms to her in his usual offer of a lift. She accepted eagerly and he scooped her up with a smile. He picked his way through the attic to the scaffolding he had landed on earlier. It shook alarmingly with their combined weight as he stepped out onto it. He wasted no time in catching an updraft and relieving the contraption of their weight. The joy of gliding with Elisa in his arms rushed over him as it had so many times before. Her accident had dampened down that joy. Now he smiled at her as he spiraled up into the night sky, renewing one of the simply pleasures he delighted in sharing with her. She held on to him even as she thrust her face out into the freezing night air with a huge smile. He could see his Elisa returning little by little. In truth, she had never been gone, but merely lost in the fears that had been consuming her. Now he had a renewed sense of hope for her, hope that she might put the recent traumas behind her and start to live again.

Goliath caught a particularly strong cross-wind and allowed it to blow him backwards into a bit of aerial acrobatics. Elisa's girlish squeal as she clung to his neck brought relieved laughter rolling up from his chest. This was how it had been the night before her accident. They had enjoyed each others company well into the wee hours of the morning. If not for the undercover job, he would have allowed sunrise to take him as near to her as he could have safely been. He refused to dwell on that morning. Instead, he turned his thoughts to this night. Dawn was still many hours away, the night was young. They might yet pick up the Q and A game she had begun so many months ago. The mood seemed right for it. Perhaps it might lead to something more. Pushing that thought away gently, he refused to tread those waters. He would not risk pushing her further than she was willing to go. It would happen in her time. She must be willing or he would not pursue the matter. There were some things that their physical differences could very well make difficult, at best. Some might be completely impossible, but he would accept whatever intimacy they finally managed to have between them.

/

Elisa laughed as Goliath whirled her around in the air. Her heart felt lighter for having come out with him this night. She glanced up at the sharp angles of his face shyly the very instant he stole a glance at her. Their eyes met briefly and her heart swelled with love for the man she saw behind that hard gargoyle exterior. No one in the whole of the world could make her believe he was anything but a man. He exuded pure male grace and power. It did not matter to her that he had wings and a tail. Those were bonuses in her eyes. Leaning her head into his chest, she inhaled deeply of his scent. Leather, stone and faint male musk all mingled in the wind. She could hear the odd triple beat of his heart through the massive muscle that lay beneath her ear. It was a soothing rhythm, something she had denied herself the right to listen to over the last weeks. She had been so short with him when he had come to spend time with her after the meeting with Puck. Why had she tried to push him away along with everyone else? Had she not known he was as stubborn as old stone? He had been her rock, her anchor in the storm that had followed the awakening spell. She had screamed, raged, cried and even shut him out and still he had remained steadfast by her side. He would never leave her, never hurt her and absolutely never dream of breaking her heart, ever. So why was she so hesitant to take those final steps in joining them in every way physically possible? Was it that she was afraid they would not be compatible? He was so different, so alien. She knew that had to be it. If she had her way tonight, however, she would at least find out just how different he was from a human male where it counted.

/

Demona was making progress with the spells she cast. The crystal, sadly, refused to allow her access to its power. She was, however, able to assist its reconstruction of the praying gargoyle statue. One spell she had cast around it had nearly tripled its ability to draw substance from the air around it. The praying gargoyle would be complete in a matter of months, if not weeks with a nightly casting. Instead of her calculations of sixty weeks, it might be decreased to something closer to sixty days. Just two months and she would have two of the three pieces she needed to rid herself of humanity. That was, of course, provided that the statue the crystal was constructing held the same power as the original. She was not sure if it would given the accelerated process she was pushing it through. The last element would come from Dr. Sevarius. He was, as yet, unaware that he would be so directly responsible for the end of his own miserable race. She found it ironic and laughed maniacally at the idea. How very fitting that a single human should create so many things that could doom the rest of his race.

Her work finished for the night, Demona launched herself into the night sky with a sense of hope. At long last her fondest wish might soon be within reach and there would be no one to stop her. She had kept her plans closely guarded. No one even suspected she was currently working on anything. The beauty of it was that not even Goliath or his human-poisoned clan knew she was working on anything.

Instead of flaunting her plans, she had decided to lay low this time. After all her centuries of planning, one would think that she would have learned that lesson long ago. Time and time again her plans had failed largely due to her own short-comings in sticking to those plans. She had finally admitted to herself that she was as stubborn and unchanging as old stone. With that admission had come the realization that she must learn to change if she was ever to accomplish her goals. The thought occurred that those goals might change with her. She tossed out the idea. How could she ever loss sight of her goals? Her entire race depended on her ridding their world of the human infestation. With every passing day, she noticed how much more pollution they pumped out into the air, the water and even the very soil in which food was grown. Most of their technology, though useful, would be the downfall of the entire planet if something was not done soon. She did not have the gift of prophecy, but she did not need it in order to see what the humans would ultimately do to the earth. It seemed she was the only one with the sense to realize they must be stopped for the good of the world.

These were the thoughts, the rationales that caused her to blow the whistle on her own plans so often. She wanted Goliath and his clan to understand why she did the things she did. They never would. She knew this to the marrow of her very bones. Even when she finally succeeded in her goals, she doubted the others would understand. They would never forgive her, for a certainty. Goliath would never forgive her. He had given his heart to his pet human. She feared he would give much more of himself to her than that. A deep loathing welled up in her core for both of them. She hated Elisa with a passion born of heartbreak for stealing Goliath from her just as she was about to reclaim him as her mate. Goliath, she hated for betraying her and tossing her aside like so much garbage. In a way, her goals would join together and rid her of the human vermin along with dealing a fatal blow to her former mate's heart. Elisa Maza would die with the rest of her kind. Her death would leave Goliath in misery for the rest of his days. Demona thought she might leave him to wallow in self-pity for a decade or so before finally executing him for the betrayal of their race. It was a win-win. _And he will never know it's coming_ , she thought vengefully.

/

 

 


	7. A Dance Around Mating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader Discretion Advised. Mature Readers Only Beyond this Point. Chapter contains explicit descriptions of intimacy and inter-species sex. You have been warned.

I do not own Gargoyles. No copyright infringement is intended with this work. Strong Language and Adult Situations, Reader Discretion is Advised.

 

**Mature Readers Only Beyond This Point.**

 

Winds of Change

Chapter 7

 

After a time, Goliath returned to the Eyrie and brought them in for a graceful landing in the castle courtyard. It was not so much that his wings were tired. He knew the cold was getting to his delicate human passenger. His wings _were_ tired, but he could have kept up the aerial play for another hour if she had requested it of him. Elisa's exposed flesh was rosy from the cold and she had begun to shiver slightly in the bracing wind. He knew it was time to go home even though she had halfheartedly protested the idea. There were still hours before dawn and he intended to spend as much of that time with her as he could before sleep encased him in stone. His antics in the air had infused his body with a rush of adrenaline and joy tinged with a hint of desire. He hoped for many more nights such as this.

Mindful of the doctor's orders, Goliath allowed Elisa to walk roughly half way to their quarters. The progress was slow and clearly painful for her, but he knew it must be done. The leg would not heal properly otherwise. Opening the door to their chambers, he allowed her to enter ahead of him. Anywhere else, he would have insisted on entering first to be sure there was no danger, but not here. Here he had left a dim light on to wash the room in a faint glow. He did not need the light to see that the room was empty. The light was for Elisa's human eyes.

As soon as they were inside, he closed the door on the world outside and made his way to the fireplace. It had burned low, but had not gone out, therefore the room was not as cold as he had feared it would be. He tossed another log on the embers and poked at them with the iron poker. It did not take long for the dry wood to catch and he stepped back to admire his handiwork. The fire increased the light in the room to a warm glow. He thought he might leave it as such to set the atmosphere. The idea of enjoying a romantic encounter near a warm fireplace entered his mind and he entertained the thought with a faint smile.

Elisa caught the dreamy look on his face as he gazed into the flames. Her heartbeat quickened and her breath caught at the sheer beauty of the being she shared space with. From head, to wing tip, to tail, he was breathtaking and she realized he was all hers. She need only reach out and claim him as her own. In a way, that thought still frightened her. Her luck in the past with men had been anything but stellar. Some part of her feared it might be so even with Goliath. She knew otherwise, however. Goliath loved her unconditionally as she did him. Their love had already transcended species barriers. It was possible that it might even carry on into the afterlife when their time came.

Goliath turned his head and saw the expression of awe on Elisa's delicate features. He tilted his head slightly in question as he turned to face her. Drawn to her though he was, he stood his ground stubbornly. If anything happened between them this night, he refused to rush it. Instead, he wished to savor every aching second of it as if it might be their last. Dangerous as their lives were, he knew any moment may well be their last.

“Soooo...gargoyle/human compatibility 101.” Elisa began as she watched him for a moment longer. Psyching herself up to ask the one question that burned the brightest was no easy task. She took a breath and let it out slowly before blurting it out. “What's.... under the loincloth?”

This question came so suddenly that he nearly choked. Goliath had hoped she might decide to pick up their Q&A where they had left off, but he had not expected this. He knew this question was coming, but he had not thought she would ask it so soon. He eyed her with a sudden desire he thought he had succeeded in pushing aside. “It is not so easily explained, Elisa. My anatomy is something we must explore together in order for you to understand how......it works. After all, I am not a human male.”

“Show and tell....” There was a wicked kind of smile spreading across her face as she hooked her hands under the hem of her shirt.

“Elisa....,” he drew her name out in a warning tone as his hands shot out as if to stop her.

Reveling in the expression that pinned itself on his face, her eyes seemed to sparkle with mischief. As his mouth hung slightly open and his eyes grew so wide she worried they might pop free of their sockets, Elisa vaguely wandered if a gargoyle could have a stroke. That thought drove her to let the hem of her shirt slip from her hands.

Goliath caped his wings tightly around himself in an attempt to hide the arousal that would soon make itself apparent. If she continued to tease him, he might find it necessary to make a hasty exit before he lost control. He knew his eyes were aglow and he squeezed them shut for a moment in order to regain the fraction of control he had already lost.

“This is getting us nowhere fast,” Elisa grumbled. A thought seemed to come to her then. One instant she was standing just out of reach of him, and in the next she had hopped up and hooked her arms around his neck. It was an encore performance of their first kiss.

A mixture of emotions ran through Goliath as she explored his mouth passionately; shock and delight among them. This time, however, instead of allowing shock to overrule his desire, he returned the kiss with just as much passion. His knees went weak with the sensations and he allowed himself to carefully come to rest on them. It reduced the height difference dramatically. The moment Elisa's feet came to rest on the stone floor, she began to kiss and nip her way down his chin and neck. His pulse quickened as the first phase of arousal threatened to overtake him.

Hungrily, he captured her lips once more, mashing them against his fangs. Elisa lost herself in that kiss, her hands spread into his hair, over his shoulders and across the bases of his wing-struts. An eternity seemed to pass between them as their arms wrapped around each other. To Elisa, it felt like the most natural thing in the world, as if they were made for each other regardless of their species differences.

A long breathless moment later, she broke that kiss and drew back just enough to look him in the eyes. The normally pale lavender of his face was flushed almost purple. His eyes were half-lidded and a slow smile spread across his face. He trembled ever so slightly against her.

“Wow....,” Elisa breathed. It was the only word her hormone soaked brain could find in that moment.

“Agreed,” Goliath said hoarsely as he carefully rested his brow-ridges against her smooth forehead. If things continued along their current path, he did not think he would be able to maintain control of his passion.

With a low moan of desire, Elisa dove in for another kiss, nipping his lower lip nearly hard enough to draw blood. Her hands ran through the spun silk of his hair and traced the pulse lines on either side of his neck until they found his broad shoulders. Her short nails dug into his flesh as her chest heaved against his. She was beyond controlling herself and she did not care. The fires of passion burned like lava within her stronger than they ever had for anyone else.

“You drive me mad with desire.....,” Goliath gasped out, when was he finally able to break the kiss. His voice deep and rough in his own passion. That nip had sent him teetering on the edge of control. He held her waist firmly. With an effort of iron will, he gently pushed her back to arm's length, “...but....I cannot allow this....to continue. I could not live with myself if I brought you to harm.”

Elisa snapped at him, “Dammit, I won't break!”

Even as he was about to protest, the words were lost in his throat as she suddenly jerked her shirt off and cast it away carelessly. Shock loosened his hold on her and she slipped free to press her now naked chest against his. The heat of her bare flesh against his shattered his resolve and his arms snaked around her.

“Are you certain you wish to do this, my Elisa?” he asked in a half growl, half whisper.

In answer, she took hold of the double-wide belt that encircled his waist. He did not expect her delicate hands to contain such strength. In a matter of moments she whipped the leather loose from the buckle causing it to issue a slapping sound. The buckle landed on the floor with a heavy thump as the wide strip of leather, now loosened from his waist, slithering to the floor after it like some exotic snake. He took a breath, deliberately flexing his abdominal muscles. The softer leather of his loincloth slid away and followed the belt. He took a steadying breath as Elisa's eyes slid over the thin strips of cotton wound around his hips and between his powerful thighs.

“So you do wear something under that old leather...,” Elisa mumbled as she ran her hands over the cotton that rested over his well defined hipbones.

Goliath hastily unfastened the layers of knots above his tail that held the cotton over him. Every instinct screamed at him to take her now, breed her well and hope she quickened with his seed. It nearly overwhelmed him, but he managed to damp it down with the fear of bringing her to real harm if he should lose control completely. After a moment, he carefully freed himself from the cotton undergarment.

“Wow....,” Elisa breathed for the second time that night. It was shock and curiosity that played over her delicate features. Shock in the sight of the indigo scale-plates that covered him where a human would have had hair. Those plates looked to have a pebbled texture. There was not a single follicle of hair anywhere on his body beyond his scalp. Of his male organs, there was no sign.

“I am male, Elisa. You can be certain of that....,” he whispered, his voice refused to rise above that volume.

Experimentally, Elisa ran the tip of one finger lightly over some of those scales. Her touch produced a delicious gasp of pleasure from Goliath's lips. The sound encouraged her and she cupped the mound of flesh beneath the scales. She felt his pulse throbbing insistently throughout the region, but there was something more. There was a mass bulging against a ridge-like seam in the middle, pushing it outward at her touch.

“Elisa....,” he moaned out her name as he weakly attempted to stop her hands.

“Your heart is pounding, your skin is hot and you're just as breathless as I am. Don't deny it...,” Elisa's growl sounded, to his ears, very much that of a gargess in the grips of passion. “We've denied ourselves so long. I know you want this as much as I do.”

Goliath took a shaky breath. He knew she was right. “I would be foolish to think I could hide my desires from you, my love. Yes, I want this, but I want nothing so much as your safety.”

“You won't hurt me. I trust you...,” she said calmly, confidently.

“I do not trust myself....,” he hissed even as he prevented her hand from exploring him further.

“Then trust me to know if we need to stop,” Elisa whispered as she gently took his hands away from the bits of flesh he strained to control.

A loud moan escaped him the moment the ridge parted and his organ descended to its proper place. He was big, but she had expected that. His organ was every bit the size of a twenty ounce soda bottle. As her eyes feasted on forbidden flesh, she suspected there was more to it than what she was seeing in that moment.

“We will know shortly if we are truly compatible or not,” Goliath's voice was at its deepest level. His eyes were locked on hers as he ran a talon gently through her hair.

“I've already told you, I want this, I want you, I want us. I love you, Goliath,” she reaffirmed.

“Elisa, you must be certain you wish to proceed. Once the second phase begins, there is no turning back.” he said with finality. He did not wish to frighten her, but if she pushed him into his second phase he knew he would be unable to leave her unmated.

Her response was devastating as her hand wrapped around the portion of his organ that had already exposed itself. Her grip was firm, but gentle and he shuddered at the contact. He trembled with each caress of her hand and she knew the moment his second phase broke over him. The organ swelled a fraction more and expelled a bit more length along with the pointed tip. All around this extra segment swirled ridges covered in tiny nubs. From base to tip, the colors flowed from indigo to purple, to a deep violet.

“You're even more beautiful than I ever imagined,” Elisa said softly as her eyes found his once more. Deviously, she ran her fingertips over the ridges that wound around his organ and savored his gasp. “Are these meant to anchor you for airborne mating?”

Goliath stared at her in amazement as he nodded. He had utterly lost the ability for speech in that moment. She was even more bold than he had ever guessed she might be. This small human woman who had stood her ground against his anger on numerous occasions now pushed the limits between their two species. _What else might she be capable of_ , he wandered even as she leaned into him and purposely overbalanced his precarious crouch. He half fell, half slid backwards onto his back on the rug that was serving as their nest. She suddenly straddled him and his eyes widened as he realized her pants had gone the way of her top at some point. His head swam as his eyes maintained contact with hers. Demona, in her so few demands of him, had never faced him when he had taken her. This was, coupled with Elisa's human form, entirely new to him. Her hair framed her face in black silk and her eyes were half lidded when she braced her hands against his chest and began to move against him.

Elisa carefully rubbed herself against him in the most intimate way possible without taking him inside her. She wanted to be sure he was not too big for that before she attempted it. The pleasure she felt would, she hoped, be echoed in him if he were even half as sensitive as his reactions had suggested. He thought she drove him mad with desire before, he had yet to experience the wildcat that would soon be turned loose when she finally lost control.

Goliath's eyes felt as if they might pop right out of his face when she began to gyrate her hips over him in a most pleasurable motion. His head dropped to the floor with a hard thump that he did not feel as a moan escaped his chest. Wings and tail quivering, he reached for her, found her and ran his talons lightly up and down her back where wings might have joined had she been a gargoyle. It produced the reaction he would have expected from a gargess as she threw her head back and hissed in ecstasy. A moment later, Goliath grunted in a mixture of shock and pleasure himself. His back arched and his talons dug sharply into his palms.

Elisa had done the unexpected once again. She had positioned herself over him as the angle of his erection shifted slightly. Pivoting her hips, she forced him into her. Delicious anguish washed over her as his girth stretched her. After a few agonizing moments, she took even more of him into her. It did not take her long before she had him buried within her to the base. He arched up to meet her in that moment. An instant later he rolled up and wrapped both his arms and wings around her, possessively, protectively even as his tail wrapped itself around her ankle.

The ache of loneliness, denied passion and unrequited love melted away from him with the suddenness of her action. He wanted to weep with the feeling of completion that followed as he buried his face in her hair. In this one moment, they had accomplished more than he had ever dreamed possible. She kissed him as passionately as she had when this encounter had begun and he returned it eagerly. Once more, she began to move and he could not contain the growl of pleasure as his hips bucked against her.

Ever protective of her, he dropped his grip to the floor beneath him in case his hands should flex involuntarily. He would rather shred the rug than her flesh. The position provided better stability as well since he was not in control of their lovemaking. She guided his movements as she took their shared sensations to a dizzying height from which all coherent thought tumbled away. There was neither her pleasure or his, but simply their pleasure. It sang along their nerve endings with such power that for just a single heartbeat, he could have sworn the lines of Elisa's form blurred and shifted. For an instant, he had a vision of Elisa's gargoyle form riding him wildly. In the next instance, their combined release shattered the image as he roared and she screamed their completion to the heavens. It seemed to rock the very foundation of the castle itself as his delicate human lover collapsed, panting in a sweat soaked heap on his chest a heartbeat later.

Wrapping his arms and wings around her once more, he toyed with a lock of her silken hair in amazement. He knew now that he had been more afraid of being claimed by this small human woman than he had been of claiming her. A chuckle escaped him as he realized she had taken him, not the other way around.

“What's so funny?” Elisa raised her head up and mumbled at him lazily.

“It seems beauty has tamed the beast,” he rumbled softly.

“I didn't give you much choice, did I?” she asked sheepishly and started to rise.

Pulling her back down against his massive chest, he shook his head faintly, “I am not complaining, my love. We are mated.....at long last, that is all that matters to me. We have completed our bond. You and I are....”

Elisa felt him tense at the words he had been about to speak and she ran her hands over the expanse of flesh that covered his wildly pounding heart. She kissed his chest and whispered softly, lovingly just loud enough for him to hear, “It's alright, Goliath. You can say those words to me. I'm not like her, I won't betray you, I won't leave you. Your heart is safe with me.”

Taking a shuddering breath, he shook his head. He would not speak those words to her. Those words had been for Demona. There must be something more, something new to fit this new mating. It came to him as if a bolt of lightning had stricken his brain. In a way, he had already said it and not realized its true implications. “No....., I have something better, more meaningful for us. You and I are complete. Now and always. My Angel of the Dawn.”

“I like that,” Elisa smiled and then thought of the pet name he had just given her. The reasoning behind it eluded her and she asked, “Why Angel of the Dawn?”

“You have watched over me while I slept on many occasions, but that first day was the forging our relationship. I fear I would not be here now if you had not acted as my guardian angel that morning.”

Elisa blushed at the sentiment. She had never really thought of her actions as heroic or deserving of a guardian-like view. Maybe he was right in his views. She had run those thugs all over the park in an effort to prevent them from finding his stone form. His life had been in her hands, as it had on many other occasions since. Hers was in his hands every night that they went gliding. She called that fair. They looked after each other.

_Now we're mated_ , she thought. She understood the implications of the passion that had passed between them and she accepted it wholeheartedly. In her mind, it was still not official. He had mentioned something about the clan elders considering the mating request between a pair and oaths being spoken. That was what she wanted, some kind of commitment ceremony that would cement their union before the clan, their friends and her family. She knew it could not be an official wedding ceremony. Gargoyles would need to be viewed as people according to human law. That might still be a long way off.

His next words came in an unexpected whisper. She thought he had drifted off to sleep, “I love you more than life, Elisa-Mine.”

Elisa kissed his chest, right over the triple thumping of his heartbeat and mumble, “I love you too, Goliath.”

Practically purring with pleasure, he held his mate just a little closer, his tail gently flexing around her ankle. _My mate!_ He wanted to shout it out to the world from the top of his tower. Nothing in the world could take her from him now. Even Death could not undo their mating. It could only separate them for a time. Elisa was the mate he had longed for ten centuries ago when he had mated himself to Demona. At least that union had not been as horrible a mistake as it might have been. He had learned a valuable lesson and the fates had given him a sensible daughter. Now they had given him his heart's treasure as well. Rumbling a sigh of contentment, he drifted drowsily as he caressed Elisa's wingless back.

**More to come. Stay tuned.**

 


	8. The Plot Thickens

I do not own Gargoyles. No copyright infringement is intended with this work. Strong Language and Adult Situations, Reader Discretion is Advised.

 

Winds of Change

Chapter 8

 

It was near dawn when Goliath finally woke. Elisa had snuggled into his chest as his wings draped warmly over them both. The pattern of her breathing told him she was deeply asleep. He was loath to move her, but the sun would rise soon. The skin-to-skin contact must be broken before that happened. He was not yet ready to discover if a human could be pulled into stone sleep or not. It had never been attempted. There was no telling what might happen. A very good chance existed that nothing at all would happen. She would simply awaken atop a stone statue. The alternative sent a chill of dread racing through his core and he tightened his arms around her carefully.

After another moment of savoring the sensations of her weight and breath against his flesh, he carefully began to move. He supported her against his chest as he sat up and worked his way to his feet. She murmured in her sleep and sighed as her body shifted in his arms. The sleep of exhaustion had taken her and he realized she would likely sleep well into the morning. That suited him as he made his way to the bed. He did not wish to wake her from what was clearly a peaceful slumber.

Pulling back the covers with his tail, he gently laid her on the chilly mattress. After what felt to be an eternity of admiration for her beauty, he tucked the covers around her. She snuggled in with a slight smile and began to snore softly. He lingered a moment more before turning back toward the rug that had served as their nest. He sighed when he saw the state of it. He had managed not to shred it, that was a true testament to the tight control he had somehow maintained. The fibers were discolored with blood, however. He glanced down at his palms and realized for the first time that his talons had left great gouges in them. The bleeding had long since ceased. He shuddered to think of the damage he might have caused Elisa's delicate flesh had he not maintained that slight measure of control. Great care would need to be taken in their future encounters, he realized.

The familiar pre-dawn tingling in his gut prodded him and he glanced at the window. The sky was brightening much quicker than he had calculated. There was no time to dress as he had intended. Loin cloth and belt forgotten in their place on the floor, he stepped over near the window. Caping his wings tightly, he covered himself in case someone came in besides Elisa. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes. Thoughts of the coming dreams of the day lulled him as the sun crested the horizon. Stone sleep encased him near the window, not far from the foot of the bed.

/

Elisa woke with a start, sitting up and glancing around wildly. Her dreams had gone from bliss to nightmares. Disorientation settled over her for several long moments as she searched the room for Goliath. She found him near the window not far from her. He had been locked in stone sleep with a look of profound contentment. His wings were tightly caped around him and as she glanced around the room, she realized why. A smile spread across her face at the memory of the night before. The gargoyle's loin cloth and belt lay on the rug before the fireplace. They had not turned to stone, but instead remain soft and pliable. She realized he must not have had time before sunrise to replace them in their customary place. He must have moved her to the bed just before dawn then.

Wrapping up in a blanket, Elisa stood and headed for the bathroom for morning duties. On the way, she noticed the smears of blood on the rug and gasped. She knew it was not hers, the placement was wrong in regards to where she had been. It must be Goliath's. She decided she would look him over in a few minutes to see if she could find the source. Her bathroom duties must come first, however. As she moved, her body ached pleasantly in reminder of the night before. Some part of her dreams had suggested that he had rejected her. She knew better as she moved into the bathroom. Her body did not lie about things of that nature. It had happened and she did not regret it. From the contentment frozen on Goliath's face, she knew he also harbored no regrets.

Once the morning duties were finished, she showered and dressed for the day. There were a few things she needed to take care of. She would not get the chance to sleep in as usual. Her thoughts turned to Goliath when she came back into the main room and she made her way to his stone form. Running her hands over him, she noticed nothing at first that would indicate an injury. She had thought maybe she had broken the skin of his back with her nails, but there was nothing. Running her hand over his stone encased flanks, she smiled before noticing the palm of one hand was exposed above his tail. Those large hands were clasped behind his back in a resting position to allow his wings to rotate forward a few inches more. There were three deep gouges in that palm. She understood in that instant where the blood must have come from. He had gouged his own palms in an effort to maintain enough control so as not to hurt her in his passion. She knew those marks would disappear with the setting of the sun, but that did not make her feel any better about them.

Wandering over to the discarded articles of his clothing, she gathered them up and headed to the bed with them. They were heavier than she had thought they would be. She smoothed them out on the foot before him after making the bed. After a moment, she rolled the rug up and stood it on end near the door. _Maybe_ , she thought, _I'll try an get the blood out of it later_. That finished, she jumped and gasped as her heart nearly tore itself from her chest at the sound of a loud meow. The cat she had come to call Lacie bounded off from between her feet to sits on the windowsill near Goliath's stone form.

“How did you get in here?” she asked the cat as she stopped before the window and picked it up.

The only answer the cat gave was another meow followed by a deep rumbling purr as she stroked it. She smiled, realizing how very much she had missed the company of her former furry companion. Scratching the kitty, she finally set it down on its feet outside the door as she stepped out. She needed to see Chavez today and figure out when she would be coming back in to resume her duties. After all, she could not remain off work forever. The higher ups were already stroking out over the amount of vacation time she had chewed through during her world tour. It was a miracle she still had a job in the face of all that. If not for the captain, she suspected she would have been out on her ear long ago.

/

Dominique was notified the moment Elisa Maza left the Eyrie building. She had wanted to keep track of the woman after learning that she still lived. Human or Fae, she did not care. Somehow she was going to end the detective. She had not been far from the Eyrie when she heard the cries of passion. Her wings had stiffened in outraged horror and she had nearly fallen from the sky. She would recognize Goliath's howl anywhere. From the sound of the female crying out his name, she had no doubt that he had finally taken his human whore. It sickened her to think of the severity of his betrayal. There was no hope left in her heart of ever reconciling with him now. He was tainted, poisoned by humanity beyond redemption in her eyes. It did not matter that his human was mingled with Fae blood. As a matter of fact, that made it worse. If there was some sort of abomination created between them, it would also bare the unnatural taint of Avalon's magic. She suspected, however, that any such creature would die well before it ever had a chance to be born. If she had her way, it might never be conceived.

/

Elisa ran a mountain of errands she had been forced to put off in the weeks following her accident. Apparently Xanatos had paid up the rent on her apartment for a year. She grudgingly thanked him for that as she was not yet sure she wanted to make her move to the castle permanent. Her family needed to acknowledge and accept the new dynamics of her relationship with Goliath first. She did not know how long that might take, but she intended for them to believe she was still living in her apartment. Of course, they knew he had been taking care of her each night since the accident. They also knew that she had had little choice about where she stayed during her recovery. Now, however, her parents would be expecting her to resume her more 'normal' life on her own. She was not sure she really wanted to return to the apartment, but neither was she sure if she wanted to walk away from it.

As she stood in the middle of the apartment, Elisa realized there was really nothing for her to do there. She had thought to clean out the fridge and take care of a few other things, but it had already been done. There was a note on the counter indicating that Xanatos had hired a maid service to maintain the apartment until Elisa herself was ready to resume occupancy. _Apparently, he thought of everything_ , she grumbled to herself.

Glancing toward the coffee table, Elisa realized there was one vital piece of her life that would be left behind if she walked out now; Cagney. The cat's urn still rested on the coffee table facing the glass door. She picked it up and looked around at the furnishings of the apartment. It was then that she realized her surroundings had become strange and unwelcoming. She would be vulnerable here. Demona might try to kill her again and if she stayed in the apartment too long, she might as well be painting a giant neon target on her back. That was when her stubborn temper kicked in. If she left, gave up her life in the place she had called home for so many years, then Demona and those like her had won. She would effectively be in hiding.

No, she would hold on to the apartment. In fact, she might move to one of the other buildings in order to throw Demona off her trail. There were advantages to living on her own that she was not yet willing to put aside. Xanatos might be ready and willing to have her move into the Eyrie building, but in reality she was not. True, she and Goliath were now mated, but until there was some sort of commitment ceremony, she just could not see it as a lifelong thing yet. Old fears surfaced regularly and screamed that he might disappear at any moment like so many others had. She did not think she would recover if such a thing happened, not with him. He was her best friend, the love of her life and so much more that she could not find words for. She realized he was part of her soul and had been almost from their very first meeting. To lose him now would be tantamount to losing her life.

Taking one last look around the place, she thought to make a choice later as to how best to approach a potential move. After closing and locking the door behind her, she tucked her keys into the pocket of the old black leather jacket she had dug out of the closet and walked down the hall. There were still several things she needed to do and not a lot of daylight in which to do them. She wanted to be back in Goliath's chambers by sunset at the latest.

/

The human had returned to her apartment. _How convenient_ , Dominique thought. It would make it so much easier to capture her if she remained in the apartment a few nights at least. She wanted to be rid of the woman before her plans came into fruition. There was no need to tempt fate again, as she saw it. The detective was the key to most of her failures in this century. She planned to remove her from the game completely. Without her, Goliath might well go mad. That was something she would have to consider as well. He was a formidable opponent even without a will of his own. She knew far too well how vicious he could be due to the enslavement spell she had once cast on him. For weeks after that mishap, she had carried deep bruises from his attack that even stone sleep had been unable to heal completely. The idea of him retaining his will, going mad with grief and rage only to attack her again with murderous intent did no appeal to her one bit. She might well have to deal with him soon after the police woman, a feat she was not yet prepared for. The thought occurred to her that she might capture them both. Deal with them simultaneously. It did hold some appeal, after all.

Sitting in her car, she waited for the 'human' to exit the building. She needed to know if Elisa was returning to her normal routine before she made her move. That would take time and many hours of boredom, she suspected. It would be worth it in the long run. Once she knew the woman's routine, it would take little effort to make her disappearance seem as if it might be related to her work. After all, the detective did go undercover on occasion. She might do so again once she was fit for work. If she were to 'disappear' during one of those excursions, the others might assume she was deep undercover. It might take them months to learn that the woman had been taken hostage and killed. The plan was perfect, she need only wait for the right moment to take action.

/

Elisa had the feeling she was being watched only moments after exiting her apartment building. The skin between her shoulder-blades began to crawl uncomfortably and she looked all around nervously. She saw no one obviously watching her. There were few people on the sidewalks near her building and none seemed interested enough in her to take notice. _Come on, Maza. Knock off the paranoia_ , she berated herself silently. This was her first solo outing since the accident and attack, after all. She had expected some paranoia, but not the rampant creepy-crawlies she was feeling just now.

A red sedan rolled slowly by to join the stream of traffic a few feet away and the feeling passed. Whoever was in that car had been the one watching her. She was sure of it. It looked vaguely familiar, but she could not place where she had seen it before. The tag was obscured by a clump of snow.

Grumbling to herself, Elisa hailed a cab. Her ride to the precinct was uneventful. The cabby did not even seem to notice she was present until he stopped the car and waited for the fare. Stepping out of the cab, she looked up at the construction scaffolds in the light of day. The building looked like a giant pick-up sticks set that had been stacked around a block. She glimpsed the place where she and Goliath had landed the night before and shuddered. That section was rocking dangerously with the weight of a couple of workers. They were attempting to secure a pair of anchors she and Goliath must have broken loose with their combined weight. The men were failing miserably to secure it.

Just as she was about to climb the stairs to the double doors, the whole thing broke loose and collapsed in a cloud of dust. She gasped and jumped back, narrowly missing being crushed by it. The two workers dangled from whatever they had been able to grab above. Their buddies pulled them up quickly as Elisa's heart continued its wild hammering against her ribs. Her only thought was that she could have become street pizza in an instant.

“Oh shit! Hey, are you ok?” came a familiar voice from behind. When she turned he got a look at her face, “Elisa! Hey, I didn't expect to see you here so soon.”

“Yeah, I'm ok, Matt. I just came by to check in with Chavez. We were here last night,” Elisa said as he caught up to her. She realized he had not recognized her without her bomber jacket.

“ _We?_ You mean you and Goliath? I thought he was avoiding the precinct too,” Matt said in a low voice as they made their way to a side entrance.

“Yeah, well, you know how it is. Chavez wants me on that job.....,” she began and the look on his face stopped her cold. “Matt, what is it?”  
“That's right....you don't know,” Matt was saying.

“Don't know what? Matt, come on, you're freaking your partner out,” Elisa grumbled as she stopped just inside the doorway.

“Yeah, about that.... I've been reassigned. Internal Affairs didn't think it was such a good idea for a known 'Illuminati fanatic' to be attached to the GTF. I guess I know too much. They were afraid I might hand a gargoyle over to the society before they got their hands on one,” he paused and took her by the shoulders with the most serious look on his face she thought she had ever seen on it. “You can't take Goliath with you on that job.”

“What? Why? Matt, you're not making any sense,” Elisa hissed at him.

“Trust me on this one. He can't go. He'll be in danger if he does.” and just before he hurried off down an adjoining hall, he whispered, “Chavez is in the hospital. Trust no one. There are Quarrymen on the force.”

_Quarrymen_ , she thought. _Could there really be Quarrymen on the force? And why is Maria in the hospital?_ If there were Quarrymen on the force, Goliath very well might be in danger if he went with her. She also knew he would not stay behind, especially not after last night. Where she went, he would find a way to follow, to protect her even if it meant his life. He had always been that way with her, she realized. Now that they were mated, however, it would be intensified. Any commitment made before the clan, elders and family would only be a formality in his eyes. Whatever happened, she knew she would need to find a way to keep him safe during the day. That went beyond words, she noted to herself before turning to leave the station. Chavez, she needed to see the woman, find out what had happened.

/

With a mighty roar to welcome the night, Goliath burst free of his stone encasement. He yawned and looked around the room noting that Elisa was not present. His loin cloth and belt were neatly laid out on the foot of the bed before him. It was then that he realized he was still nude. A slow smile spread across his face nearly from ear to ear as the memory of the previous night's activities washed over him. It had truly happened then. He had feared it was nothing more than a dream soon after sleep had taken him. His dreams could be rather vivid at times. It was a defense mechanism against the long sleep he and his clan had been subjected to.

Winding the cotton around himself, he thought back on the passion that had passed between them. _Oh, but she is a bold one_ , he thought with a snort. He had never dreamed his Elisa would turn the tables on him. Instead of him taking his mate in a traditional manner, albeit awkwardly with her, she had taken him instead. In fact, she had left him little choice in the matter, he realized as he wound the loin cloth back into place. The leather of the belt bore a couple of new scars from her nails. She had dug them into it trying to pull it free. He had not expected her to be able to do so. The shock that had stilled his hands when she did so served as her opening to take control of their mating. Not that he was complaining. It had been wondrous in so many ways. He had never expected they would move beyond the 'heavy petting' stage, as the humans called it. In his eyes, they were just too different. Surely she would have turned away from him when she saw his nakedness, saw that he was so very different from the human males she must be accustomed to. He was never so glad in his life to be so wrong. She was his and he was hers on a level like no other mating.

Goliath made his way to the courtyard to check on the others and received odd looks from them. At first, he thought it must be the smile. He could not stop smiling and he knew it must certainly unnerve them. Broadway and Angela gave him strange looks even as they held themselves at some distance. Hudson merely gave him a knowing smile and stroked his beard seemingly hard enough to pull it out by the roots. It was Brooklyn who made the first move toward him.

/

“So, you're finally mated,” Brooklyn said as he clapped a hand to the larger male's shoulder.

“What? Why would you think....,” Goliath missed a step and came to a stop as he glared at the other male.

“Come on, Goliath. The smile, the bounce in your walk,” he paused and gave him a raised brow-ridge over his one eye. “the howls and screams of ecstasy that nearly brought down the entire castle? You didn't think we missed that, did you?”

“I......uhhh....,” Goliath stammered, at a loss for words.

Brooklyn continued with a chuckle, “Even if you aren't mated, which, by the way, I find hard to believe, you definitely got close last night. The sound effects were heard several blocks away. I think you and Elisa put Katana and me to shame.”

“Everyone knows then. How are they taking it?” Goliath worried that the others would not understand how it was between Elisa and himself.

“Good,” Brooklyn began, “more or less. I think Broadway is weirded out pretty bad, but he'll come around. Angela is happy for you and Elisa. I think her words were 'it's about time'.”

“What of Hudson?” Goliath asked quietly.

“Aye, what of ol' Hudson, lad?” the elder clapped a hand on Goliath's other shoulder, causing the younger male to jump. He chuckled before he continued. “ock, I say good for ye. Elisa be a fine lass, finer than that dark angel of yours ever was. It matters naught that she be human.”

Goliath stared at the two males in shock. He had not expected the clan to take his mating so well. In fact, he had thought they would berate him as a fool for it. Elisa was human, after all, she could never completely understand the gargoyle way. He knew, however, that Elisa was different from other humans somehow. In her he had found many qualities that a gargoyle possessed. The gargoyle way was to protect his charges, serve his clan, maintain his integrity and love his clan and mate fiercely. It was ingrained in their very nature. All of these things he had found burned within Elisa's heart as well. It was these things that had drawn him to her like a moth to a flame. Later, when she had been a gargoyle briefly, he had truly seen just how achingly beautiful she really was. He realized it was then that he had begun to see her as a potential mate. She was clan. He could never see her as simply human.

“Ye be speakin' the oaths with her soon, I expect. The lass will want to know ye plan to stay with her. It be the gargoyle way. Seems humans practice a similar thing.” Hudson said in a matter of fact tone.

“I had not thought to approach that subject so soon. The mating is new, we are still bonding....,” Goliath objected quietly, unsure whether or not Elisa would consent to speaking the oaths.

“Bah, bonding be for a lifetime, lad. Elisa be somethin' special and ye know it,” Hudson studied him for a moment with his good eye. “Otherwise, why would she finally break down those walls of yers and take ye for her mate.”

The chuckle rolling from the elder's chest told Goliath he held no illusions about who had done what to whom. Goliath visibly paled at the idea the elder had guessed more than he had ever thought he might. Of course, he knew that with age came a certain amount of wisdom as well as experience. He wandered if perhaps Maria Chavez had shown Hudson some hidden wild side of her own. Perhaps the male was speaking from his own personal experience with humans at this point. The thought gave him much to consider. If they were mated as well, he knew they would act differently toward each other when they thought no one saw them.

/

Hours later, Elisa still had not returned to the castle and Goliath had begun to worry. In those lonely hours as he sat on his perch in the library. He had tried to distract himself with a favored book. It had proven a futile effort as he kept glancing at the door hoping his human angel might make an appearance.

Finally, he gave up the pretense of reading and took to brooding just before Angela entered the library. A silent sigh of relief escaped him when he saw Elisa hot on her heels. She looked tired as she came toward him. Her approach was one of caution as she caught the brooding look on his face. He realized she must think he regretted the previous night and his dark expression slowly gave way to a smile. Still she seemed overly cautious and he wandered what was wrong. Something must be.

“Chavez is in the hospital. It's pretty bad. She's in and out of consciousness and asking for Hudson.” Elisa blurted.

“What? How? What happened?” Goliath asked, realizing by Angela's agitated pacing, that his daughter already knew, at least a portion of the details.

“Quarrymen.....,” Elisa began.

“Wait.....why would Quarrymen want to hurt your boss? She has only seen us a few times.” Angela asked in obvious confusion.

It was Goliath who had the answer to that question. He had seen it in the elder male's face earlier that evening and only now realized the truth of it. “Because she's Hudson's mate....”

“Excuse me? When did that happen?” Elisa asked into the stunned silence that ensued, her eyebrows seeming ready to meet her hairline.

“I'm not sure, but it must be the reason she was attack. She and Hudson have been spending a great deal of time together of late. I had thought it merely her curiosity about us until just tonight. Hudson seemed....too understanding....tonight.”

“Ok, whatever is or isn't going on between them, he needs to know where she is. He's not going to be happy.” Elisa said as she turned back toward the door.

“I think that's an understatement if Father's assumption is true,” Angela retorted as she followed the human.

Goliath brought up the rear and in some small corner of his mind, he hoped that he was wrong. He hoped that Hudson and Maria were only friend. His mentor might come to terms with his grief easier that way should something happen to the woman. In his heart, however, he knew otherwise.

/

Brooklyn saw the trio heading purposely toward Hudson's favorite media room and knew the proverbial shit was about to hit the fan. _Maria_. That was the one word in his mind as he hurried after them. Try as he might during his timedancing, he had been unable to avoid learning some small details about 'history'. There were many more things he had learned about his clan's history that he wished he did not know. Some he learned could be changed. The past was not as unchangeable as Goliath had imagined it to be. So long as it was not a focal point, small details could be manipulate. _Maybe_ , he thought, _this is one of them_. After all, why would the Phoenix Gate deposit them back in his current timeline if he could not effect some kind of positive change on certain events.

/

Hudson was enjoying his 'programs' when the room suddenly exploded with activity. Elisa, Goliath and Angela crowded in with Brooklyn pushing in only moments after. In the confusion, he could no longer hear the show he was watching.

“What's all this then?” he asked indignantly.

Elisa squatted down by his knee and took his hand. The concern on her face set off his internal alarms. Her words were soft and simple, “It's Maria.”

The elder sat forward in his seat, the tv and remote forgotten at her words. He searched her face with is good eye and took a breath before he spoke. “How bad be it, lass?”

“It's not good. She's in the hospital, in and out of consciousness.” she paused and patted his hand, “Hudson, she's been asking for you.....”

“Aye, makes sense she might....,” with the creaking of aging joints, the elder male gained his feet. “I'll be goin' to her...”

“You can't. The Quarrymen attacked her. They'll be waiting for one of us to show up at the hospital.” Brooklyn blurted.

“An' if I dena, lad, how do I be livin' with meself? Could ye stay put if it be Katana?” Hudson turned a hard eye on Brooklyn then. When the younger male dropped his head, he nodded, “Aye, I thought not.”

“Then we will all go. Brooklyn, Broadway, the two of you go with him. Angela, Lexington, you're with us.” Goliath said even as he scooped Elisa up.

For once, Hudson did not argue the need of an escort of sorts. It seemed Brooklyn knew more than he was telling any of them. He always seemed to know more since he had returned to them, the Phoenix dumping him and his family in a tangle of limbs in the courtyard. The brick red male had made it clear that there were some things they were better off not knowing. Gargoyle or human, no one should know too much about his or her own future. It was a sentiment that he had stood by during the last weeks until now.

/

As Brooklyn made his way out behind the rest, a thought struck him. The clan and those closely associated with them seemed to jump from one crisis to the next. He often wandered if the same would be true if they had been human. Glancing around at the interior of the castle as they made their way toward the courtyard, he realized something else. If they had been human, they likely would never have come forward in time, the castle might not rest upon one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan; and they almost certainly would not have met Elisa. She was the key to their continued existence. He wandered if she had any idea just how important her role in the future was. Did she even have a clue of her destiny? He doubted it.

_Destiny chooses greatness from among the meek,_ Brooklyn thought as he followed his clan. He had read that somewhere, but he could not pin down exactly where at that moment. Bold and willful though Elisa might be, he knew she wished only for a moment's peace. That was why she and his clan leader both were marked by destiny. Chosen by some unseen force to lead the way into the future. He only hoped that future could be nudged in a slightly different direction, a happier direction. If so, it had to begin this night.

 

 


	9. Conflicts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Quarrymen have reared their ugly heads. A member of the clan is gravely wounded. Demona makes a discovery related to her current scheme that chills her to the bone.

Hud

Hudson followed Elisa into the hospital room cautiously. If not for the hooded cloak he had borrowed, he would not have been permitted in the building. As it was, the hospital staff were beside themselves with agitation. It was obvious what he was, even with the cloak, as he entered the building.

There was next to no one going in or out of the building currently as visiting hours had recently ended. An exception was made for Elisa and her companion in consideration of who it was she was there to see. There had been some complaints directed at Hudson's obvious nature, but nothing more. He was concealed enough that he did not draw the notice of the few patients roaming the halls.

Now, as they came to a halt within the room, Hudson threw off the cloak. Elisa closed the door behind them even as he drew up short of the bed. The woman in the bed seemed small and frail with tubes and wires cascading all around her. At least she was not on a ventilator. Elisa was not sure either of them could have handled that sight.

/

Hudson stopped near the side of the bed and gazed down at the bruised and battered woman. He took her small hand in one of his larger hands even as he brushed a stray strand of hair from her brow tenderly with the other. He let out a sad sigh before speaking her name.

"Maria, lass....," the old soldier spoke softly into the dim room.

Elisa took the scene in with an air of sadness. She thought Goliath may well be correct in his assumption that the elder male and the captain were close. She was not sure if they were truly mates, but there seemed to be a certain undeniable level of intimacy to Hudson's lite touch. Gargoyles generally reserved hair stroking for love interests or mates, she knew. They viewed such contact as tantamount to a lover's kiss. The fact that the elder now ran his talons delicately through the captain's short hair spoke volumes to her.

Coming closer to the bed, Elisa finally got a good look at the woman. Her face was black and blue, one eye was swollen shut with an angry crimson bruise over the puffy lid and her upper lip was swollen with several stitches holding a nasty split closed. Her left arm was clearly broken as it was encased in a cast from fingers to the middle of her upper arm. The woman looked as if she had been in a fight with a bulldozer and lost.

Anger stirred in Elisa's gut as she looked her boss and friend over. The Quarrymen had clearly beaten her within an inch of her life. She still was not out of the woods yet. The doctor had hinted at internal injuries. She knew, in some cases, such injuries could be fatal days or even weeks after they were received.

Shaking herself from her morose thoughts, she noticed that Hudson's touch and his voice must have reached Maria. The woman's eyes slowly slid open and glanced around in confusion. The instant they fell on Hudson's lined face a faint smile touched her lips.

"There ye be, lass..," Hudson whispered with a small smile.

As he smiled, Elisa realized she had rarely seen him smile. Never had she seen the kind of smile that graced his aging features before that moment. That smile crinkled the flesh around his eyes even as it seemed to melt years from his face. There was no doubt in her mind that the old gargoyle felt something for her friend. She was reminded of how her father looked at her mother when she was sick. He very nearly doted on her. This was the same kind of smile, the smile reserved for those nearest and dearest to the heart.

"Hudson....," Maria whispered hoarsely as she tightened her grip on his taloned hand. "They let you in? I hoped they would..."

"Aye, lass, ye 'ave Elisa to be thankin' for that. I'd not be 'ere if not for her." Hudson remarked as he gingerly cupped the side of Maria's face.

"I wanna go home, Hudson. They won't stop pokin' me...," Maria, strong captain of detectives Maria Chavez, was whining.

Elisa's mouth had fallen open at the sound. With an effort of will, she closed it and stepped up to the other side of the bed to look at the woman. She winced in sympathy when the woman's gaze met her own. She was barely recognizable with the swelling and bruises. The detective realized the beating must have taking place sometime in the wee hours of the morning, right after she and Goliath had left the precinct. It struck her then that they might be directly responsible for the attack. The Quarrymen must have seen them enter or leave the building. If Matt was right, one of them might very well have seen them leave the captain's office. She needed to get back to work, root out their man. Her anger was such that she wanted nothing more than to give him a taste of what he had so obviously given Maria. She realized that some of Goliath's occasional thirst for vengeance must be rubbing off.

"Elisa...," Maria whispered weakly as her eyes met those of the detective.

"Who did this, Maria?" Elisa asked vehemently.

"...didn't see his face...," Maria shook her head slightly.

"Was he wearing a hood? Was it a Quarrymen?" she was asking the woman too many questions, but she needed those answers.

"No hood....cop. He was one....of ours, Elisa! How could one of our own.....sink so low?" Maria's alertness was wavering.

"A cop...," Elisa hissed under her breath as she backed away from the bed and started to pace the small room. She could not believe it. Matt was right. There was at least one Quarrymen on the force. But who? That was the million dollar question. It could be almost anyone who held a grudge against the gargoyles.

"You need to stay away from the station, you and the rest of the clan," Maria said turning back to Hudson, her alertness renewed for the moment. She released his hand and caressed his cheek down into his beard. "They'll be watching for you. I couldn't stand it if something happened..."

"Rest easy, lass. The clan be safe....," Hudson said just as an alarm went off and a red light began flashing in the hallway. His head snapped up with a start and his eyes met Elisa's.

"Fire alarm. I think we have company..," the detective said even as she pulled her gun from its holster and sidled up to the door to peer around.

".....not on active.....duty...." Maria mumbled as she lost her hold on consciousness.

"Doesn't matter, Cap. Active or not, I'm still a cop," Elisa said quietly as she motioned Hudson to stay put.

"Elisa, lass...," Hudson began as his hand strayed to the sword he never left behind.

"Stay with her. If there's trouble, I have the communicator and Goliath is on the roof." Elisa's words were sharp with determination.

Hudson, torn between guarding Maria and serving as Elisa's backup, simply nodded. He had learned long ago, along with the others, that once the human made up her mind about something, she was as stubborn as old stone. The old soldier would remain near the injured woman until he was sure the Quarrymen were not making a play to get at her again. _If they do_ , he thought, _may the gods help 'em when I do get me talons on 'em_.

/

Goliath heard the alarms going off in the building. The caged light above the rooftop door began whirling around in a kaleidoscope of red and white. He knew the fire alarm must have been pulled. The question was whether it was truly a fire or a ploy to get at the captain. A cold fist had clenched in his gut at the thought of Elisa caught in the middle of yet another Quarrymen attack.

"Elisa...." He said softly into the mic that hung about his neck.

"I'm here, Big Guy. There's no fire," her voice crackled back at him.

/

Icy fingers ran up Brooklyn's spine at Elisa's words crackling over the earbuds in all their ears. There were so many variables, so many things that could go wrong. He had never been sure what the actual trigger for this series of events had been. Now he did; the fire alarm. There had to be Quarrymen inside the hospital and in the noise and confusion of the flashing lights, they would strike, he was sure of it.

"Hudson! Get out of there! Now!" Brooklyn's resolve snapped. He had thought he could stand back and allow history to maintain its current course, without interfering, He was wrong. History meant to repeat itself as it barreled down this all too familiar path.

"Lad,....what....," Hudson's voice crackled through the earbud and cut off with a loud bang.

"Nooo, Hudson!" Brooklyn roared as he angled his glide back around to the set of windows he knew looked out from Maria's room.

Shielding his face with his arms, Brooklyn exploded through the glass into the room. The scene was chaos. Hudson was wrestling a human for control of a pistol. Clearly, from the hole in the monitor above Maria's bed, the gun had gone off at least once already. As the pair struggled, the man was forcing the gun lower between them. If it angled a little lower, it would be in position to hit the elder in the chest. A fatal wound, he knew. History would repeat itself with Hudson's death at the hands of the Quarrymen.

With a roar, his one eye glowing white-hot, Brooklyn launched himself at the gun. It must be the gun. If he hit the human, the gun might still go off and wound the elder. The seconds ticked by like hours as he moved through the space between them. He felt the bands of time slip. The scene before him seemed to skip like a broken record for an instant. He prayed the Phoenix was not about to swoop in and whisk him away before his actions saw fruition. The slippage of time around him seemed to beg for intervention.

One instant he was moving painfully slow toward the weapon and in the next his hands began to encircle it. Time seemed to have reached and broken some sort of speed barrier. Snapping from near frozen to complete and utter chaos in the space of a single heartbeat. A deafening bang issued from the muzzle of the weapon along with a tiny fountain of flame. He made contact with it in the same instant. The gun was crushed along with the human's hands by his powerful talons in the next instant. Both human and gargoyle issued a yell. For the human, it was a cry of pain. For the gargoyle, it was a cry of frustration. His actions came too late...

/

Elisa had barely made it to the nurse's station down the hall when she heard the sharp report of a gun echo through the hallway. An instant later the sound of shattering glass followed. It was accompanied by Brooklyn's angry roar. She turned back toward Maria's room with a look of horror pinned on her face. Only seconds after the initial outburst, a second loud crack screamed across her hearing.

“Oh God...,” Elisa gasped out in a ragged whisper as she turned and ran for the room, the healing injury of her leg completely forgotten in her haste.

/

Katana jerked as if she herself had been shot when she heard the loud crack explode over the tiny speaker in her ear. With a snarl, she tore the offending device from her ear and hurriedly winged back toward the building. A mixture of emotions raged through her; anxiety chief among them. Her mate had gone against the decision made in their earlier discussion. He had put himself in the equation, put himself inside an event that had previously unfolded without his direct interaction. Who knew what sort of damage his actions might have done to the timestream. If he still lived, she thought she might beat some sense into him with the flat side of her sword.

/

Elisa made it back to the doorway of Maria's room and crouched low, her weapon ready as she peek inside. The sight that hit her took her breath away. The Quarrymen lay in an unconscious heap near the foot of the bed, his hands a crushed and mangled pulp of blood and bone. His weapon was twisted and mashed into what remained of his hands. Brooklyn huddled near the I.V. pole. At first, the detective did not see Hudson. Then, as the brick red male moved slightly, the sight rocked her to the very core.

Slamming her gun into its holster, Elisa rushed forward as Brooklyn clamped down on the bleeding wound high up in the elder male's chest. Hudson lay unconscious in a growing pool of blood even as the other male attempted to staunch the flow. She noticed the anger in the red male's face even as her eyes pinned themselves to the elder male's still form.

/

“Dammit, what's the point of even being in this timeline if I can't change anything?!” Brooklyn growled half under his breath.

Carefully, the brick red gargoyle lifted Hudson just enough to make sure there was an exit wound. When he saw that there was, he reached up and yanked the draw of a cabinet near him completely out and began rummaging through it as soon as it hit the floor. He pulled several packages of gauze out and began ripping them open with his teeth. Gently, he began stuffing these into the still bleeding hole. In a matter of minutes, he had both sides of the wound packed and was wrapping it tightly with more gauze and an ace wrap.

Glancing up once at Elisa, he noticed the look of worry mixed with a question on her face. As he taped off the ace wrap, he nodded toward it and said, “Field dressing. It'll hold until we get him back to the Eyrie.”

“I could flag down a doctor....,” Elisa began and received a one-eyed blazing glare for her suggestion.

“No..., they don't know gargoyles like Dr. Sato does. He's not dyin' on my watch, not like this....,”Brooklyn growled as the white light of anger faded from his eye, and barely under his breath he hissed, “not this time.”

Elisa knew the last was not meant for her to hear, but she did hear it and her eyebrows raised because of it. She still was not used to the idea that Brooklyn knew more of the future, and the past, than did the rest of them. He had danced through centuries, fought battles in both the distant past and the distant future. The male before her was a hardened warrior with decades more experience than his younger counterpart had ever dreamed of having. The younger Brooklyn would have known next to nothing about field dressing or packing a wound. This Brooklyn was seasoned, knowledgeable and unafraid of using whatever he could as a weapon. That included his talons, she realized as she glanced at the man slowing bleeding out behind her. His hands... His hands were crushed into his gun. Her friend had done that without a second thought in an attempt to save a member of his clan. She knew Goliath would not hesitate to do much the same and more for her if the need ever arose. The shear brute strength of the clan she loved was, for want of a better word; frightening.

Pulling her eyes back to Brooklyn and Hudson, Elisa tried once more to convince him the doctors scurrying around the building could help. She was afraid they would not make it back to the Eyrie in time to save Hudson. Her words did little to sooth Brooklyn's raw nerves, however. Instead, they seemed only to spur him forward in his determination to get Hudson back to the Eyrie and its state-of-the-art infirmary.

“I said _no_! These doctors are butchers. They'll make up reasons to cut him up like a damn science experiment.” Brooklyn snapped. As he made sure Hudson's wound was ready for travel, he grumbled half to himself, “Forgot just how stubborn Nick Maza's great-great-gran could be.”

“What's that?” Elisa asked in both curiosity and irritation. She hated it when anyone grumbled about her under their breath. She had caught just enough to guess he must be grumbling about some future Maza. Her great-great-grandchild had apparently inherited her stubbornness.

“Nothin'. Look, just get Maria awake and on her feet if you can. She's not safe here either. We'll take them both back to the Eyrie.” Brooklyn half growled as he realized he had nearly given away too much information about the future. As long as he had been dealing with timedancing, one would think he would have learned to keep his beak shut. Instead, he was flapping it under his breath and jeopardizing events further. He needed to learn better restraint of his grumbling habit.

/

As Katana thumped lightly down on the broken glass scattered across the floor, she was relieved to see her mate was still among the living. She took in the scene with a stern expression. The situation was better than she had expected and yet much different than it should have been. Her small beak twisted into a frown as her eyes fell on the human sprawled across the floor. She let loose a soft string of bitter curses at the condition of his hands. Her eyes fell on Hudson's pale face and she realized in a matter of heartbeats that the elder still lived. Brooklyn had done exactly the opposite of what they had decided; he had interfered with clan history. The repercussions of his choice were bound to rock the entire timeline. Who knew how it might affect future events or his very presence in them.

One life, one life might sway the outcome dramatically. They had no way of knowing in which direction Hudson's survival might sway the future. That lack of certainty was the very reason they had never interfered with any event that felt as if it could be a focal point. She prayed to the great dragon that this choice would be beneficial to the future. Perhaps Hudson's wisdom might affect some positive change to the horrific future she knew was to come.

There was only one course of action remaining to them in light of the current events. They must go with the flow and see where this new deviation took them. Stepping forward and away from the window, Katana put a three-taloned hand on her mate's shoulder. He jumped, but not as severely as she knew he might have. The male had known she was there. She had not attempted to silence her footsteps as they crunched on the shards of glass.

/

Goliath had wasted no time in following Katana down to the broken window. What he saw when he winged his way into the opening to touch down drew a gasp from his lungs. Hudson, his mentor and friend, was gravely wounded. Brooklyn leaned over him attempting to secure a makeshift bandage. Elisa was attempting to wake the police captain and there was a member of the hated Quarrymen organization lying face down on the floor, his hands a mangled mess. The big clan leader's eyes narrowed at the obvious evidence of force that had been used to subdue the human. He could not say for certain that he might not have done the same in Brooklyn's place.

As Brooklyn glanced up, Goliath noticed the uncertainty that overwhelmed the obvious fatigue in the other males one eye. It was still disorienting to look him in the face. Only a few weeks ago the male had been of an age with Broadway and Lexington. He had been younger, naive and whole. Now he was, perhaps ten years his senior biologically with a custom made eyepatch to hide the missing orb. He had yet to reveal the events that had cost him the eye. All he would say of it was that it had been a lesson in caution, something the younger Brooklyn had never truly embraced.

"Can you carry him, Goliath? We're taking them both back the Eyrie." Brooklyn stated as if it were already decided.

"Would it not be best to allow Chavez to remain here?" Goliath asked slowly as he searched the other male's face.

"No, Maria's not safe here...and Hudson....," Brooklyn trailed off with a sigh as he stood and ran a hand over his face. "Look, I don't know how this is all gonna play out......"

"Of course you do not. You have altered what was to be. Why, my mate? Why must you attempt to change what is, what was, what will be? This is what you have done every time the flaming bird has dropped us in some new place, some new time." Katana broke into the conversations, her fears for the future all but screaming through her words.

"You know I couldn't leave it the way it was, Kat. You know why I do what I do. It's always the same,....hope for a better outcome, a better future. It has to be better....," Brooklyn's voice sounded desperate as he spoke.

"But what if it is not, my love? What if, somehow, we make it worse? What then? We do not know if the flaming bird will every come for us again," Katana reasoned.

"This is my time. No matter what else has happened, this is where the Phoenix grabbed me from. The fact that it dropped us all here when it did has to mean something. I have to believe that it means I...we...can make a positive impact. We have to try, don't we?" Brooklyn sounded determined and yet so lost at the same time.

"I do not know what the future holds that weighs so heavily on your shoulders, Brooklyn, but...," Goliath began as he put a hand to the other male's shoulder in reassurance. His words were disrupted by a commotion in the hallway just outside the room.

The look Brooklyn gave him was heart rending even as he stepped aside for Goliath to lift Hudson. The red male stepped over to the bed and carefully lifted the police captain in his arms. He glanced at the door that was shaking in its frame and nodded saying, "Time to go.."

"Come, Elisa...," Katana motioned the woman to climb up on her back as her usual means of gliding was currently occupied.

/

Elisa listened to the exchange between the clan as she stepped back toward the door. Her mind zeroed in on the idea that Brooklyn was attempting to change some unfavorable future. Hudson's survival seemed to be one of the keys to that change. She wandered if perhaps the same might be true of Maria. Could her friend's life be hanging in the balance here as well? In all probability, it likely was due to her connection with the clan. Maybe the Quarrymen were here to finish the job they had started with her beating. That could be the event Brooklyn was attempting to change. It might have little to do with the elder and more to do with the human woman he was connected to than the brick red male had considered. Her thoughts were interrupted when the door began rattling in its frame. Someone was trying to get past the lock that she had flipped when she had come back into the room.

The detective glanced up at the others with the very same words about to tumble from her lips when Brooklyn stated it was time to go. Now she was hoisting herself up on Katana's back. The female was all hard muscle and sinew, she noted as she clasped her hands around her neck. It was an awkward position as the span of the female's back was not even as wide as Brooklyn's. Her wings would press in on Elisa with each current she caught. It was fortunate that Manhattan General was not so far from the Eryie building. She was not sure the pale greenish-blue female could carry her much farther.

"Do not fear, Elisa. I have carried eggs and a growing son upon my back for far greater distances than your Eyrie building. You're weight is slight in comparison." Katana's small beak twisted into a faint smile as she wrapped one stray end of her long silken belt around herself and the human. "Forgive...habit."

Elisa found herself smiling back at the female. Katana seemed sensible, calm and steady, something Brooklyn needed in his life. She understood, in only a few moments with the gargess, why Brooklyn was now so much more level-headed than he had ever been as a youth. This female had tamed and tempered him. It was good that he had finally found a mate.

Just as the door burst open, spilling several hooded Quarrymen with electrified hammers into the room, the gargoyles launched themselves into the night through the broken window. Elisa glanced back and ducked close against Katana's back as one of the hooded men threw his hammer in a two-handed swing at them with a scream of frustration. It sailed just over her head, barely missing her and the gargess both. She followed it with her eyes as it began a rapid descent toward the ground far below. She hoped it did not hit someone at street level. From that height, it did not bare thinking what condition it would leave some innocent victim in.

/

John Castaway screamed in impotent rage as he threw his hammer out into the night after the retreating forms of the gargoyles. He willed it to hit one of them, just one, any one. When it missed the misty green female and her human passenger, he realized it was going to fall harmlessly to the street below. Harmless if only it did not hit some innocent bystander, but then in his eyes, no one was truly innocent. There were only the Gargoyles, gargoyle lovers and the Quarrymen. The city's inhabitants were either lovers or hates. To him, there was no in between.

As the hammer fell, Castaway tore his hood off and turned to his men. Anger shining in his eyes, he growled at them, "Let's go."

"But sir, what about Captain Chavez?" one man asked from behind his hood.

"Does it look like she's here? Do you think you can end her miserable existence from this room? Go right ahead and try, Ferguson! Be my guest, please!" Castaway raged and motioned toward the broken window and the rapidly escaping clan.

"I'm sorry, sir. I just meant how are we going to handle this? I mean, do we even know where they're taking her?" Ferguson asked sheepishly.

"The Eyrie, that's where they'll take her." Castaway grumbled, calming some of the screaming rage with a sigh.

"Harris is down, sir. Looks like he got one of them though," another member drew attention to the man lying on the floor and the pool of blood a few feet away from him.

Thoughtfully, Castaway twisted the fabric of his hood between his hands. When he spoke, calm had once again returned to his voice, "Goliath wasn't carrying that Maza bitch when they made their escape.... No, he was carrying something much larger, maybe one of his clan. There's enough blood here.....I doubt the gargoyle will make it until sunrise."

"Yes, sir. Maza came in with a large tan gargoyle. I didn't see him gliding away with the others. That must be the one Goliath was carrying." Ferguson noted out loud.

"If he dies, the night was not a total loss then. We'll pick them off one at a time, if we have to." Castaway tucked his hood into his belt and headed for the door. "Let's go. There's still the demon to hunt down. Finding her roost is more important than Chavez, Maza or their pets."

/

Demona snared the top of the cathedral spire with her talons and worked her way down to the small unused room that currently housed the Atlantean crystal. Her nightly spells had greatly accelerated the growth of the praying gargoyle statue. Another month, she knew, and it would be complete. Sevarius had been hard at work on his mutegenic never suspecting that she was planning to use it to rid herself of his miserable race. Instead of creating more mutates, as was his plan, the compound, when bonded with the last of the disinfectant from Xanatos Enterprise would wipe out all of humanity. It might not happen in a single night and day. She knew viruses took time to sweep through the population. In a few weeks, or even months, the world would be hers for the taking.

As before, the praying gargoyle would protect her kind from the plague. Her only fear was that somehow the accelerated growth of the statue had adversely affected its magical properties. If it was inhibited in any way, her kind might perish along with the humans. Tapping her lip in thought, she realized there was only one real problem with her logic; Macbeth. He would survive the plague due to their eternal link. He would surely go mad without others of his kind to mingle with. What might that mean for her? Surely he would realize she was responsible for the destruction of his race. He might come for her and finally attempt to end their eternal lives. She was not yet ready to submit to death. As a matter of fact, she quite enjoyed the prospect of living forever. It held a certain kind of appeal, especially if that eternity were devoid of humanity.

A smile of purest evil spread across her face as she let herself into the room that stood above holy ground. It was fitting that humanity's destruction should begin in one of their most holy places. Snapping her fingers at the candles in the room, each one flickered to life to reveal the contents of that room. As her eyes roved over those contents, she froze, a gasp of horror on her lips at the sight that met her.

/

 


	10. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Hudson's life hangs in the balance, Goliath makes a discovery that could change the future of the entire clan.

The sight before her was staggering. It looked as if a bomb had gone off inside the tiny room, everything was destroyed. The old wood lining the walls were splintered with great chunks of broken furniture embedded in various locations. Of the praying gargoyle statue she had worked so hard to restore, there was no trace. Instead, in its place floated a glowing pale blue gargess. Her eyes were closed, a peaceful expression on her delicate human-like features. Wings as white as snow draped around her shapely form, one tiny wing hand catching on the fabric of her top, the other hooked into the fine chain belt about her waist. Her tail coiled loosely around her lower legs. She seemed to radiate the same magical energy the crystal had.

Cautiously, Demona stepped closer to the floating figure. The idea that curiosity killed the cat drifted across her mind even as she did so. As she got close enough to really examine the female's face, she realized the form before her was semi-translucent. _Could it be a projection? A hologram of sorts_ , she wandered. There was powerful magic involved, she had no doubt of that. Reaching out, she was about to touch the female's face when the eyes suddenly opened and snapped toward her. With a small gasp of surprise, Demona skipped backward half a step.

“You dare disturb a Guardian of Gaia?!” it was a demanding question that roared out of the female's mouth. A question that seemed to hold many more centuries of authority behind it than even Demona herself had lived through.

/

Goliath landed heavily in Wyvern's courtyard. Hudson's added weight did not make for graceful landings. He stumbled and shifted his grip on the limp form of the elder so as not to drop him. His steps did not miss a second beat as he hurried toward a door that opened with a suddenness that belied the bland visage of Owen Burnette. The big clan leader realized the man must have been monitoring the security cameras this night. An unusual thing of late with so little chaos around the Eyrie in the last two months. He suspected that his second-in-command may have had something to do with that. The brick red male knew more of the clan's future than he was willing to share.

Sparing Brooklyn an annoyed glance, Goliath nodded to Owen and rushed through the door. His mentor needed help, there were hours yet before sunrise. Hours in which Brooklyn might come clean about some small tidbits of the knowledge he concealed so firmly. He understood the other male's reasoning, he did not agree with it, however. If history was truly immutable, as he already knew it to be from his own experience with the Phoenix Gate, then what was the harm in having some forewarning for events such as this? With enough knowledge, the clan might stand a chance to effect on change their own destinies. Of course, there was always a severe chance of second guessing even the smallest of decisions. Perhaps Brooklyn was correct in keeping such information to himself, but even still, Goliath had to wander.

/

Brooklyn caught the scathing look that Goliath spared for him on his way through the door that Owen held open. There was going to be trouble. His clan leader was going to have him by the ears...again. He was going to explain, again, why he could not let the proverbial cat out of the bag about everything he knew. If he gave his clan-brother the answers to all of the questions he was bound to ask then he might be putting the future he knew in even more jeopardy than he already had. There were some things he knew must _be_ in order to ensure the better parts of that future. Others might be redefined in order to create a more favorable path. It was a complicated web he was attempting to navigate. He was not sure adding Goliath to that mix was the best idea. He also realized there might be little choice.

The future Brooklyn knew greatly paralleled the dystopian future Goliath had described from the nightmare vision Puck had given him during the world tour. There were a couple of major exceptions: it was a couple of hundred years further into the future, an alien race was determined to exterminate every intelligent being on the planet and Lexington, a cyborg though he had become, had been dust for the better part of sixty years by that time. These were things he could tell Goliath, but the clan leader's history leading up to those events might not be safe to disclose.

/

Maria regained consciousness shortly after the clan brought her to the Eyrie. She was propped up in bed with an I.V. running from the back of her left hand. Her mind was clearer, more focused even as she realized there was very little pain. Whatever medication they had her on was some good stuff. She had no illusions about the shape she was in. Even with little pain, her face was still contorted. Concern was her all consuming emotion in that moment, however, it was not concern for herself.

The captain's primary focus was Hudson's still form. She could hear his labored breathing even from her position across the room. A deep anxiety tried to well up within her and she pushed it aside. She would not allow herself to submit to that hellish emotion, not again. This man, this gargoyle that she had come to care so deeply for over the last few months, was going to be fine. She kept telling herself that even as Dr. Sato, a former emergency room doctor from Manhattan General, hovered over him and muttered his distaste for guns.

/

Dr. Sato had not taken the time to move Hudson into the surgical bay. One look at the male and he had instantly known that there was no time. Instead, he had proceeded to cut away the field dressing, a remarkably well done dressing, he noted. He grumbled his distaste for guns when he saw the wound. The old gargoyle was fortunate in the fact that the bullet had passed cleanly through. From the labored breathing, he suspected it might have clipped his lung on its way. The loss of blood was another, more pressing issue. A lung he could repair and re-inflate if it collapsed. Repairing a damaged artery was more difficult. That kind of procedure usually took at least two sets of hands. He hoped against hope that the artery was intact even as he removed the last of the gauze packing. When the wound spurted at him, he sighed in resignation. This gargoyle was going to die.

/

Goliath cornered Brooklyn just outside the infirmary, a place that held far too many emotional memories for his liking. He saw the other male wince at the look he knew was on his face and did not care. This male, his second and once one of the most trusted members of the clan, had information that he needed.

“This could have been prevented,” Goliath grumbled in quiet anger.

“I'm sorry, Goliath. I tried to prevent it. History, time....they're like a river. Drop a stone in the middle and the river will find a way to flow around it. Time corrects its course in the same way.” Brooklyn said at length. He knew the big male understood even if his mind was currently clouded with anger and grief. He had had his own experience with the Phoenix Gate.

Goliath could not help himself. He grabbed Brooklyn by the straps of the metal breastplate he wore and hauled him closer. Glaring into his one good eye, the clan leader saw the truth of the brick red male's words. There was sadness and something more. Was it guilt? Resignation? Or was it helplessness in the face of his leader's anger? He did not know.

"What are you saying?" Goliath finally rumbled softly. All the emotion seemed to drain out of him with those few words.

Releasing the male, Goliath turned and took several steps away from him. He noticed Elisa leaning against one of the many chairs in the room, her eyes shining with unshed tears even as her hands gripped the chair-back tightly in an effort to support her weight. She squeezed her eyes shut, her face a mask of grief as the tears spilled down her cheeks.

Glancing back over his shoulder, not quite catching Brooklyn in his sight, he stiffened. A thought struck him as surely as the sun would rise at dawn. He hesitated in asking the question that hammered at his brain. The answer was already clear, he knew. He had seen it in his second's remaining eye.

Finally, Goliath let out a sigh and steeled himself to ask the questions he knew must be asked. The questions, when they finally slipped past his lips were little more than a whisper “How long, Brooklyn? How many times?”

Brooklyn remained silent. He stared at the floor, his breathing even and deliberate.

“How long have you had the Phoenix Gate in your possession?” the clan leader asked more forcefully. His voice sounding rough and strained.

Elisa's eyes snapped open, her tear-stained face a mask of shock as she stared at the two males. Her question was an indignant demand. “What do you mean he has the Gate?!”

Brooklyn looked at each of their faces, her's filled with sadness and the fear of loss, his dejected and he realized it just was not worth it anymore. Lying to them was only hurting the entire clan. “I've had it since the Phoenix dropped us in the courtyard. I've gone back three times trying to fix this. I........ _can't_...... Historic focal points are immutable. This must be one of them. Why else would Hudson die _every single time_?”

“He's not dead yet.....,” Elisa said softly, her eyes hardening as she glared at her friend.

“He won't make it to dawn..... He's lost too much blood. He always looses too much blood no matter how I pack that wound.” Brooklyn sighed raggedly and all but collapsed to his knees.

“What about a blood transfusion?” Elisa asked.

“Goliath was lucky, he had Angela. As his daughter, her blood type was better than a fifty/fifty match. Hudson.....any hatchlings he might have had were dust a millennium ago...” a great sigh shook Brooklyn as he tried to suppress the sob his last statement brought forth. He was beaten, broken by his inability to affect the change he wanted.

“Oh my god.....,” Elisa hissed as her eyes lit on Broadway coming through the main door. Grim determination spread across her face as she pushed off the chair and grabbed the portly gargoyle by the arm.

“What is it, Elisa?” Goliath asked sounding so very tired.

“Look at him, Goliath. _Really look_ at him. I'd bet money that Broadway is Hudson's biological son! I don't know why I never saw it before!” with a strength born of desperation, Elisa dragged Broadway through the doors that lead to Dr. Sato.

“What?!” Brooklyn gasped as he looked up, the cloud of misery revealing a glimmer of hope.

/

_Too much blood loss, no suitable donors_ , Dr. Sato thought as he wiped his sweat soaked brow on the sleeve of his surgical gown. He did not know how he was going to keep Hudson alive until dawn. It just did not seem possible. The saline solution he was pumping into his veins would help, but it was no real substitute for actual blood. It could not carry life-sustaining oxygen to the vital parts of the body.

Tying off the last external suture, he noticed the detective rushing up toward him with the aquamarine gargoyle in tow. She was literally dragging him along beside her, not that he was resisting much. He had a confused look on his face even as Hudson's grayish form came into view.

“I'm sorry, Detective, you can't be in here right now....,” the doctor began and she cut him off.

“Test his blood. He's a match, he's gotta be...,” there was a note of excitement in her voice as she thrust the large gargoyle's arm at him.

Skeptically, Sato grabbed up the kit he needed for the test plus an empty blood pouch just in case the gargoyle was compatible. “Alright..... I thought I tested everyone, but...”

“Hey, I don't want that thing stuck in me!” Broadway began to protest as he caught sight of the needle.

Elisa pointed at Hudson, who was clearly dying and snarled at the aquamarine gargoyle, “ _He_ is going to _die_ unless you stop being a baby!”

Broadway's eyes widened as he saw Hudson's sickly looking form lying prone on the flat bed. He had not realized the elder was in such bad condition when he and Angela had returned to the castle. The others had maintained radio silence and now he had a pretty good idea why. None of the clan would want this to get out. Their communicators had proven a couple of times not to be as secure as they had once believed.

“No, I don't want him to die because of something so small. Go ahead, Doc, do whatever you gotta do.” the portly gargoyle said in a breathy voice.

“Alright, Broadway, it's gonna be just a little pinch.....,” Sato had it done before he had even finished the sentence. Just in case the two gargoyles were a type match, he secured an I.V. port in the male's arm.

“Huh, I didn't feel a thing....,” the chunky gargoyle said and then began to sway.

Elisa guided him to a chair before he fainted. She had not thought a gargoyle would faint at a little needle stick. Then she realized this was Broadway and he had not reacted well to the sight of blood, any blood, since he had accidentally shot her. It was understandable under those circumstances.

The chemicals only took a few moments, precious moments that they were all keenly aware that Hudson might not have. Comparing the results with Hudson's, Sato breathed a silent prayer of thanks to the heavens. He noticed Elisa glaring at him expectantly even as he prepped the blood bag and tubing. Nodding, he quietly said, “They're a type match.”

Broadway locked his eyes on the elder male as a small frown of consideration crossed his face. There was a question in his eyes when he glanced back at Sato. He could not help but ask it as the doctor attached the tubing to his arm and coaxed the blood to flow. “Does that mean Hudson is my...... _father_?”

“Your blood types match, your clan is small and there are the _obvious similarities_ between the two of you. I wouldn't dismiss the idea.” Sato stood once his work with the bag was finished, “I can test your DNA later, if you like. It might take a couple of days to get those results...”

“I don't know...... I mean, it would be kinda weird....” Broadway was hesitant to entertain the idea now that it was clearly a possibility.

“Think on it awhile. There's no rush in that decision,” Sato said and then indicated the bag on the stool near his feet, “As soon as that's full, I'll swap it for another. Hudson lost a lot of blood. I need at least two bags from you. You'll be weak afterward. I want you to eat something as soon as you leave the clinic.”

/

###  **Sunrise.....**

Goliath and the others took their customary positions as the sun cast them in stone sleep. Elisa stood next to Goliath's perch for several moments. She admired his stone form lovingly and wandered again if he regretted the passionate encounter that had passed between them a few nights before. He had not mentioned anything that had passed between them. In fact, he had said very little to her. Once things had settled down into the waiting game over Hudson's survival, he had pulled her into his lap and buried his face in her shoulder. They had sat like that for the better part of two hours before it was time for the clan to take their places.

After another minute, she turned and headed back toward the clinic. It was time to see Maria, time to see if Hudson had truly survived until sunrise. They had all been hopeful, including Brooklyn. To him, it was a hope that he had come to feel could never be after three skips back in time. She had to wander what he had done with his double. Had time merged them once it caught up to his present? Trying to figure out time travel and all its variables was enough to give her a headache.

/

Eyes scanning her surroundings, the guardian slowly uncoiled herself and hesitantly allowed her feet to touch the floor. Her left hand slid away from her breastbone to reveal the Atlantean crystal embedded deep within it. As the bright glow dissipated she seemed to solidify. Her hair, now appearing as white as her wings, feel over one shoulder softly.

“Guardian of Gaia? What are you talking about?” Demona asked the female skeptically. Then she noticed the crystal and snarled, “ _You destroyed two months of work! Give me the crystal_!”

The pale gargess blinked at her as the words registered. Then she glanced down at her chest, at the crystal the other had indicated. “I am the Guardian and I _am_ the crystal as the crystal _is_ me.”

It struck Demona like a ton of bricks in the next moment. “Are you saying you are the magic that resides in the heart of the praying gargoyle? _You_ are the power of the crystal?”

“I am....,” the female swayed, but only for an instant. “.....the Guardian. Why have you called me forth?”

“I accelerated the praying gargoyle's growth......,” Demona said and stopped, her thoughts swirling in a maelstrom of chaos. _Perhaps_ , she thought, _in accelerating the growth, I called out the heart of what protects my kind_. A wicked smile spread across her face as she realized this new development might work to her advantage.

/

Dr. Sato checked his watch as the sun crested the horizon. He heaved a sigh of relief as Hudson's flesh slowly turned to stone. Another few minutes, he knew, would tell the tail. He had been told when Goliath lay in the clinic what to expect if the gargoyle died just before or at the moment the sun rose. Checking his watch again, he heard the door swing open and glanced up. Elisa, looking drained from the night's events limped in. Her eyes were trained on Hudson's form as worry lined her face.

Five minutes passed and the gargoyle's form remained solid. Sato let out a breath and sank into a nearby chair. The elder gargoyle would live. If he was to understand all that had been said during the night, then this was even more of a miracle than he would have pegged it. Time travel, some kind of gate and the fact that Brooklyn, a much older Brooklyn than he had originally met, had been skipping around in time were all concepts that seemed to fly right over his head. _Maybe_ , he thought as he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, _I'm just way too tired for all of this right now._

Elisa visibly relaxed as the minutes ticked by after sunrise. It was clear that she realized the elder gargoyle was going to survive. As Sato took a closer look at her, he realized just how tired she looked. She was pushing herself too hard. He did not care what Puck or Owen said about her so-called magical abilities. From a doctor's perspective, she was still very much flesh and blood; human. Like any biological organism, she needed rest and he was going to see to it that she got that rest.

Rising from his seat, Sato crossed the room to a disorganized desk tucked into the corner. After a moment, he took a couple of steps over to a cabinet a little ways from it and unlocked it. Reaching in, he rummaged for the medication he was looking for. When he found the small bottle, he walked back over to Maza.

"Here," he said, holding the bottle out to her.

Elisa glared at the bottle as if it were a viper ready to strike before glancing up at the doctor, "What's that?"

"Something to help you sleep. You're not getting enough. I want you to rest during the day if you're going to be traipsing all over Manhattan at night with the others." Sato was not unkind with his tone, but he was firm.

"Not happening, Doc. You know I don't do pills." Elisa retorted.

"These you will. No matter what else you might be, you're still flesh and blood. You need rest and I intend to see that you get it. Now take the bottle, take a pill and go find a bed. Hudson will be fine and I'm sure the others are roosting by now as well...." Sato sounded even more tired than she felt.

Reluctantly, Elisa took the bottle, "Fine, but if these make me all weird, I'm coming back to drag you up the wall with me."

Sato smiled weakly at her and nodded. That was all he could ask of her. If she came back, he would deal with whatever she threw his way. Either way, he planned to take his own advice and find a bed. He was way overdue for some rest himself. The surgery had been tedious with him being the solo surgeon on the task. He had known it could be done by a single doctor, but had never had the misfortune of needing to do it solo. _Until last night_ , he thought ironically.

/

###  **Sunset.....**

Hudson awoke with a roar, his stone skin exploding around him. He looked around in confusion at his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was struggling with a member of the Quarrymen over a gun. It had gone off...

With a gasp, his hand flew to the tight place just below his right shoulder. It encountered a large wad of soft fibers and he glanced down. His mouth fell open as he realized it was a bandage. Choking out the words, he asked in a weak strangle, "What happened?"

Maria was the first to hear him, to notice that he was awake. They still shared the recovery room. She carefully pushed herself up in the bed enough to see him. Her heart did a flip-flop as his eyes found hers and she smiled weakly.

"Lass...., why are ye 'ere?" Hudson asked as he rolled himself off the bed and lumbered over to her.

"Quarrymen, they wanted us both. The clan brought us in. We didn't know if you were going to make it after.....," Maria's face seemed to crumple in on itself and a ragged gasp shook her frame.

Hudson wasted no time in carefully gathering her up into his arms. Her slight weight pulled on the healing wound, but he paid it no mind. This small human female had taken hold of his heart in a way that none but his precious mate ever had. It still pained him to think of her, his 'Joy'. That was what he would have named her if anyone had ever asked. The female who clung to him now had a personality so much like hers, strong, willful and kind. He understood the bond Goliath and Elisa shared all too well when he was finally forced to acknowledge what was growing between him and Maria. She was his 'Joy' in human guise. He could not deny it nor would he.

"'tis al'ight, lass. Takes more than a Quarrymen's pea shooter to be killin' me, no doubt about it." he soothed the woman as she clung to him. The aging gargoyle realized it must have been a very close call this time. He might not be so lucky during another encounter with the terrorist group. Now he wandered if it might not have been a better idea to suggest the clan bring the captain back to the Eyrie in the first place. _How many times 'ave ye told the clan to reason things out before jumpin' inta de fire_ , he berated himself silently. _Ye be an old fool, Hudson_.

Maria leaned back and looked him in the face. It was a face she had grown to adore, alien though it seemed. She saw the gentle older 'man' in that face and realized the same must be true for Elisa. It was not hard to see the people behind the harsh gargoyle forms that these individuals resided within. They were people and she realized she would fight tooth and nail to make sure society recognized that fact.

Smiling at him, she cupped the side of his face, tracing her hand down to his beard and gently tugging on a lock of it. He twitched and snorted faintly at the gesture of affection. An instant later she was rewarded with one of his face-crinkling smiles. His dark eyes seemed to dance even though there was an edge of pain in them.

"I see you're both awake....," came a cleared throat and then the doctor's voice from the far side of the room.

The pair jumped as if they had both been shot. Hudson's hand went instantly to the bandaged wound with a pained expression at the sudden movement. He glared at the doctor for a moment, but there was not enough anger in it to light his eyes. It was more irritation that accompanied the pain. "Aye, lad, I be awake and none too happy 'bout this wee thing 'ere."

"That 'wee thing' nearly killed you last night. I know your stone sleep worked wanders on it, but you really shouldn't be up yet."

"An' what would ye 'ave me do, lad? Lay 'bout an' lick me wounds...," Hudson asked in mild disgust.

"You need to rest. You've got two pints of Broadway circulating through your veins. That doesn't mean you have to 'lay around' here, but....," the doctor shrugged as if at a loss for what exactly to say.

"Aye, Broadway, is it?" Hudson said thoughtfully. He knew Angela had given blood to Goliath. They had been a blood match due to her being his daughter. He stroked his beard and wandered if the same might be true of Broadway and himself. _Could the lad really be the last egg me 'Joy' clutched_? The gargoyle way was to raise children as a community. He could not, would not spare any child of the clan special treatment, but...

Sato saw the pondering look in the tan gargoyle's eyes. He realized now was as good a time as any to broach the subject of paternity. The clan needed to be aware of who was related to whom, in his opinion, in case something like this came up again. He had no doubts that it would. There was no need to change their customs over that knowledge. In fact, only their attending physician really need know.

Taking a steadying breath, Sato blurted it out, "I've offered to test Broadway's DNA against yours to determine whether or not you might be father and son. Now that you're awake, I can run the idea by you."

"That dinna be the gargoyle way, lad....," Hudson began.

Holding his hand up to forestall the older male, Sato shook his head, "It's not like that, Hudson. I can tell you or not, the choice is yours. I realize most clans raise children as a community, but your doctor should really know who is related to whom. That, in no way, means the rest of you need to know, but it does leave the option open."

Hudson stroked his beard as Maria rubbed the hand that continued to hold one of hers. He thought long and hard on what the doctor was saying. The realization struck him that he honestly wanted to know. He wanted to know if Broadway was his child. He had taken no other mate before or after his 'Joy'. If the lad was his son, then he was also hers. That would make the lad the last remnant of her that he would ever have. There was no denying that he had her color.

Coming to a decision, Hudson nodded, "Do it, lad,......an' tell me.......when ye know."

Turning back to Maria, Hudson saw the pride shining in her eyes and smiled. _So much like me 'Joy'_ , he thought as he ran his talons delicately down her bruised face. The structure of her face was the same. If her hair had been blond and her skin the same color as Broadway's, he would have been hard pressed to tell them apart. All that was missing in this woman were wings, talons, spurs and a tail. She was every bit the gargoyle in spirit that 'Joy' had been in life. An idle thought crossed his mind and the shock of it stole his breath away for an instant. He wandered for a moment how she might react to a mating pledge. It was in that moment that he realized he loved this small human woman.

/

Elisa stretched luxuriantly as her mind swam up to consciousness. She hated to admit it, but the doctor had been right. Rest was the very thing she had needed. It had been with a great deal of reluctance that she had taken the small pill. Now she was glad she did. She felt more rested than she had in weeks.

Opening her eyes, she gasped in horror and snapped them shut again. Her mind barely had time to register that her eyes were neon green headlights again. Mentally she squirmed away from the green flames that licked at the back of her mind. She felt those flames rising again as they had weeks ago. Her innate magic was breaking free of the barriers she had built around it once more. It seemed every time she slept too deeply, her tight control slipped just the tiniest fraction.

Sitting up, she sighed and opened her eyes slowly. The light was still there. Leaning forward over her knees, she realized she needed Puck's help after all. This was not going to just go away as she had hoped.

"Elisa.....?" Goliath's uncertain voice snapped her attention toward the bookcases across the room.

She had not realized it was already well past sunset. The blazing green light from her eyes lit his large form perched on the stool near those bookcases. His book rested on his lap forgotten and a wary look had pinned itself to his face.

Closing her eyes and putting a hand over them, she grimaced. Her voice, when it came was little more than a hoarse whisper. "I didn't want you to see that...."

"So...," Goliath began. She could hear him closing the book and setting it aside. A heartbeat later, she felt the bed dip with his weight even as one of his large hands gently took her wrist. He urged her to lower her hand. "This is the secret you have been keeping these many weeks."

Slowly, Elisa opened her eyes and raised them to his. The green glow gradually dissipated as their eyes locked. She gave him a grim look and shook her head. "I thought it was like Fox's magic. I thought it would manifest once and then bury itself again...."

"But it has not," Goliath's quiet words were not a question.

Shaking her head, she took a shuddering breath and looked down at her hands. "No..."

"I have suspected something of this nature for some time," Goliath started slowly, unsure of exactly how to put his suspicion into words. "Coyote....."

Elisa looked up at him sharply. _How long has he known_ , she wandered. It took her several minutes to find her voice. When she did, it was much stronger than she had expected it would be. "Apparently, he's my grandfather."

It was finally out. Goliath finally knew the secret she had been keeping since she had awakened in the hospital after the accident. It was liberating. She had not realized how much she truly needed his advice in the matter until she found herself unable to ask for it. There had been so much fear involved in the idea of him finding out. Fae did not hold a comfortable place in his heart. She had feared he would see her differently once he knew. How wrong she had been, she realized as he ran his talons through her hair. She leaned into his hand in relief.

Goliath saw the distress in her eyes and felt the need to reassure her. He ran his talons through her hair as a thought idly passed through his mind. He gave it voice without hesitation, "I would love you no matter what your form, my Elisa."

A single tear slid down her cheek as she nodded in acknowledgment. Sighing in relief, she glanced up at him and saw the truth of it in his dark eyes. Her face became a mask of determination as she said, "I need to see Puck. _He_ awakened the magic. Maybe he can put it back to sleep."

"In my experience, magic is a force to be reckoned with. It does not simply 'go to sleep' once awakened." He could find no other words to gently prod her into the harsh reality of what he had seen. She was a creature of magic. He was surprised Oberon had allowed her to slip past him during they many trips to Avalon's shores.

"I know, but I have to try. I don't know much about magic. Hell, I didn't even believe in it until Demona cast that enslavement spell on you. Mythological beings are one thing, but magic? C'mon, Goliath. Do I look like a mage to you?" there was apprehension in her voice and it was rising in volume.

"I have always known there was something special about you. You seemed more than merely human from the very beginning." Goliath stated gently, the ghost of a smile playing across his lips.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked incredulously.

The lavender behemoth shook his head slightly, his eyes never leaving hers. "You have an uncanny knack for knowing what I am about to say before I say it. You're 'police intuition', the lucky breaks, your survival when others would surely fall and even your unflinching ability to stand in the face of my anger all come from the same place. I believe they come from the core of magic within you. It is who you are, who you have always been, my Elisa. Do not push it away."

“Then I guess I better learn how to use it.....,” Elisa mumbled even as the rational side of her mind finally admitted that he was right.

/

More to come. Stay tuned.

 

 


	11. The Guardian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loss and tragedy triggers. Reader Discretion is Advised.

The guardian peered around the room. It was small, quaint and inadequate for her needs. The female before her was equally inadequate. A heart of corruption lay within the creature's core. Unworthy, that was the best word to describe her. This was not the embodiment of her physical form. This female was not the vessel. This gargoyle sought power, destruction, genocide and age old revenge. She had not learned the lessons of the past. Lessons that she was meant to learn before the 'locusts' came to devour the world. _Such a waste, more's the pity_ , the guardian thought as her eyes locked sadly with those of the female before her. She knew this creature would attempt to usurp her power, such was the nature of her psychosis. The gargess would fail, for it was pre-ordained and yet she did not relish the struggle to come. It was bound to weaken her more than her ten thousand year sleep had.

/

Owen tensed, the puck within him becoming deathly still at the sensations that raced across his senses. Magic, powerful, ancient magic had been released into the world once more. He had not sensed its source in ten millenia. The Guardian was free. The next thought that swamped his mind was that he needed to find Maza. _This is_ _ **it**_ , he thought gleefully as the puck began to pin-pong in his skull faster than light. _The first prophecy of the Dracona Cycle is about to be fulfilled._ Turning abruptly, he hurried at nearly a run toward Goliath's chambers. The detective, would no doubt, be within. She was the key, he knew that now. The prophecy must come to pass, she must fulfill her role in it or all would be lost, the future of the world was hanging on the outcome of the next few events.

/

Demona thought perhaps she might still use the power of the crystal provided she could convince its guardian of the truth of humanity. This being could prove to be a powerful ally in her quest to exterminate the human vermin. Somewhere within the Scrolls of Atlantis, she had found mention of such a guardian. She had believed it to be nothing more than a protection spell, some sort of warding to prevent the inexperienced from accessing the power of the crystal. Never had the thought entered her mind that it might actually be some sort of omnipotent being. Even her wildest dreams had not prepared her for that. Now that she was faced with the guardian, she realized it might have been better if this creature had been male. She could have seduced a male. After all, her physical assets had proven more than once to be the ultimate weakness in the male gender. She had used her body against men of both species on a number of occasions to obtain that which she desired.

"Do you guard the power within the crystal or do you guard my kind?" Demona asked pensively.

"I am the Guardian....," the being answered uncertainly.

"Yes, I know that," Demona growled in frustration. "but the guardian of what?"

"I grow tired of this game. Accept that I am the Guardian, for it is what I am." the Guardian growled back at the gargess.

Demona was taken aback for a moment. This was the first glimmer of emotion she had seen the being express. She stared at the female for a moment, calculating. If she could coax emotion from the guardian, albeit only mild annoyance, then she might yet gain an advantage. She did not wish to anger the being, however. The power that lie within the guardian was an unknown factor.

"It seems I am not asking the right questions," Demona speculated out loud and was rewarded with a curious look from the being that seemed more ethereal than corporeal.

The Guardian's eyes locked with the other for a moment. An instant later, her head snapped to the east, her eyes becoming unfocused. Her voice was a soft hiss of shock when it came, "The vessel...."

"What vessel?!" Demona snapped even as the being faded and suddenly disappeared. The gargess let out a scream of frustration.

/

Elisa opened the door and was just stepping out when Owen's hurrying body slammed into her. Stumbling, she gasped at the sudden sharp pain that lanced through her middle and stared at the man in shock. The look on his face was so far out of character that it sent warning bells screaming inside her head. Oatmeal Owen never hurried, never looked excited and rarely looked stressed. Now, his face seemed to somehow portray a full spectrum of emotions all at once. The very idea of the trickster being excited about anything regarding her or Goliath was frightening, to say the least.

"You are just the person I have been looking for!" he exclaimed sounding more like Puck and less like Owen in that moment.

"And why are you looking for me?" Elisa asked, eyeing him cautiously. She was not sure she liked the idea of him seeking her out, especially after their last encounter.

"Let us just say, destiny is upon us....," his smile was enough to make her skin crawl.

"Yeah.....I don't think I like the sound of that.....," Elisa stammered. Now that she was faced with the trickster's human host, she was not so sure she wanted to ask him anything about the magic he had helped awaken within her.

Owen seemed to stare off toward the west in a daze for a moment before his attention returned to Elisa. He took note of Goliath stopping behind the human to tower over her protectively. He wandered for a moment how the gargoyle was going to react to the transition his mate was about to under-go. After a moment, he realized it did not matter. She would still be Elisa.

The detective was becoming suspicious of his actions when he finally locked his gaze back on her and said, "Meet me near Goliath's perch in ten minutes. Your first lesson will begin then."

Elisa opened her mouth to speak and closed it again when the man hurried off. She glanced back at Goliath, who was frowning dangerously after Owen's retreating back. When the man disappeared from sight, his gaze drifted back to hers. The frown remained.

"I believe I shall accompany you. My trust of him wanes a little more each night." Goliath rumbled.

"Yeah....," Elisa sighed, her mood becoming just a fraction more unstable. "Did he seem suspicious to you?"

"I believe that would be the understatement of the millennium, my love. All the more reason I should be there to protect you." there was a certain finality to Goliath's words that Elisa had learned not to argue with. Once he set his mind to a thing, it was next to impossible to sway him.

"Alright, let's go. The sooner we know what he's up to, the better," Elisa admitted as she stepped out into the hallway, her hand absently rubbing the tender ache across her abdomen. She waited a moment for him to close the door behind them.

/

Puck bobbed up and down in the wind that buffeted the castle's highest tower, Alexander in his arms. With the coming events, Oberon's restrictions chaffed at his ego. The Lord of Avalon knew of this prophecy just as surely as the sun would rise on the morrow. None had known when it might come to pass, however. That was the dilemma. Puck needed to be at his peak and the only way to do that was through the infant grandson of Titania. It irked him this night that any magic he practiced must be in the form of a lesson for the boy. He could do it, of course, he could, but that was not going to make this night easy.

He did not have long to wait for the woman to make her appearance. When the giant gargoyle shadowed her, he was not surprised. As a matter of fact, he had expected no less. After all, the coming events concerned him as well. He found the whole situation ironic on multiple levels. His thoughts swirled around in a chaotic jumble until the blue misty figure materialized on Goliath's very perch.

"Welcome Guardian." Puck said formally and bowed as best he could with the young child in his arms.

The glowing blue-white female nodded to him faintly as she surveyed her surroundings. She had teleported herself blindly to the essence that called to her. Her eyes skimmed over the large gargoyle with his hand protectively resting on the human's shoulder. A gasp escaped her when her eyes locked on those of the human female before the gargoyle. She felt her ethereal form shift almost painfully. It would reflect what was to be her physical form, she knew. Her hair shortened and turned black as night and her skin took on the same caramel tone as the human. Her gargoyle features softened, but did not disappear. In a matter of moments, a young gargess stood before them that resembled both Elisa and Goliath, albeit, transparent.

"My vessel, my body, my essence....," the Guardian whispered even as she saw the sudden fear blossom in the human's eyes. It was not meant to be like this. The vessel was meant to recognize its missing soul. Already, she could feel the echo of power emanating from the woman. Her thoughts were synchronizing. It was a process that she could not finish on her own. Puck was needed. He must guide the vessel, reassure her, comfort her.

Floating down from the crenelated wall, she cautiously approached the woman. There was something....off. Something not quite as it should be. There were two sources of power emanating from the human. The woman was strong-willed, dominant, her very escense interlaced with magic and something more. She was _complete_. That came from the surity of the male behind her who was clearly her mate. There was powerful magic within her and it called to the Guardian, but _she_ was not the vessel. Still the Guardian found herself drawn to this strange female who radiated humanity and something much more. Glancing down at the woman's abdomen, she gasped as the realization struck her. There was another within her. The vessel was within the human, but not the woman herself. What called to her was an unborn being.

"Can it be?" she breathed and looked to Puck who was smiling that greasy smile he was so known for. "Is it true? At long last, could the prophecy be at hand?"

Puck zipped around like a chaotic firefly for a moment before he was able to contain his excitement. He laughed and came to a sudden stop before the transparent female. Looking her over in admiration, he finally answered her. "Oh, yes, Dracona, Great Dragon Guardian of the World! The prophecy is at hand. Your vessel awaits."

Elisa took a step back as Puck pointed toward her. She had no intention of becoming a mindless vessel for some magical monstrosity. She even said as much as Goliath put both hands on both of her shoulders possessively.

"You misunderstand...," the Guardian began as she came forward and placed a delicate four taloned hand over Elisa's belly. " _You_ are not the vessel, you carry the vessel. I am the soul you will bare. I am to be your child."

"Dracona, the Great Dragon...," Goliath breathed in quiet awe. "I had thought it merely a story to teach hatchlings the value of life."

"My child....?" Elisa gasped quietly, her eyes widening as she glanced around almost wildly. "But I'm not pregnant. I can't be. Goliath and I are too different.... Aren't we?"

"The wanders of magic, eh, Detective?" Puck winked at Elisa even as little Alex began to giggle and blow bubbles. To Dracona, Puck said, "Shall we begin, great queen?"

Dracona looked long and hard into the eyes of both Goliath and Elisa. She hesitated before giving her answer in a ragged, mournful sigh. "We must wait...."

"Excuse me?" Puck's jovial attitude evaporated as quickly as it had come. An instant later he demanded, "What do you mean we have to wait?"

"The vessel is there and yet it is not...," Dracona began, looking for a way to describe what she felt from her future self. Then it struck her and she locked her eyes to Puck's. If she had held corporeal form, tears might have slid down her cheeks. "There is one that must perish before the vessel is conceived."

"What?" Elisa's horror resounded across the top of the tower like quiet thunder.

"I am sorry,....Mother," the female whispered sadly as her eyes met Elisa's. "My sister has already been lost. Her spark has winked out. Let the knowledge of my coming birth be a balm to your breaking heart during the long nights to come."

With those final words, the strange guardian that Puck had called Dracona faded away before them. A handful of heartbeats later, Elisa doubled over clutching her low belly and grunted between gritted teeth. The dull ache that had begun with the unexpected impact with Owen now surging into a searing pain. Sinking to her knees before Goliath could grab her, she felt as if she were being ripped apart from the inside out. Before she could take a second breath, the giant gargoyle had scooped her up and was running for the infirmary. It was the one place in the entire building that he was coming to despise. There had been too much tragedy within those walls. Much more was to befall them before sunrise, he feared.

As Puck touched down his form blurred and Owen took a step down into the tower. Alex fussed in his arms. The child had sensed the loss of the first gargoyle/human hybrid. There would be another, he knew. It would take time, however. Time... That was something the Guardian did not have much of in her current form. He would need to find a way to sustain her until the mismatched couple conceived again. It might not be long, he knew. Then again, it could be months before they were willing to partake in the act again that would result in a child. The thought occurred to him that he might have to 'set the mood' and encourage that act once the human was physically ready again.

/

The Guardian Dracona, had not gone far from the human who was to become her mother. There was a deep sorrow in her heart for the child the woman was losing. She had not asked for a sacrifice in order to pave her way back into the world of the living. Unfortunately, that was Death's due. He would not release her without it no matter what prophecy must be fulfilled. She wept silently, tearlessly for the sister who might have been. The human would be many months before her body was ready to carry another child. She knew Puck would find a way to sustain her magically until she could inhabit the body that was meant to be hers. That meddling blue skinned gargess had awakened her too soon, but perhaps that was all a part of the bigger plan as well. She was not so omnipotent as to question the Creator's great plan. It would be as it must be, she knew.

/

Owen carried Alex into Goliath's chambers. He wasted no time in charging up the stairs behind the door at the far end of the room. Once at the top, he waved a hand across his vision of the room above. The room wavered and dissolved. The alchemy lab faded into view and he set Alex down on a fur covered chair near the door as he closed it firmly behind him. The work he must do now was critical and required old-school magic. Oberon's restrictions be damned, this must be done with delicate care or the future itself might be lost.

Stepping across the room, he stopped before a tall silver framed antique mirror; Titania's mirror. It was a trinket he had retrieved from Demona's estate not long after he had left her with his 'gift'. He intended to call the Queen of Avalon herself forth. Only she could convince Oberon to release the puck from his confinement. It must be done, if only for a single night. The Guardian must be sustained and protected for a time. He could not, would not ask her to return to Avalon's shores for that time. If he knew Oberon, and he surely did know him, the Lord of Avalon would not allow her to leave. That would certainly play a hand in the destruction of the world in a century or two.

The spell he prepared to cast was similar to the one Demona had cast to summon him. Of course, there were vast differences. First of all, there were no iron chains bound around the mirror to ensnare the queen. Second, the queen was actually being summoned and not himself so the naming was much different. He did not expect her to manifest outside the mirror, but merely communicate through it. If she could not convince Oberon to release him, then perhaps she would assist him in another manor. He did not care so long as Dracona was protected during the coming months.

/

Titania glanced toward her mirror, the twin to the mirror in the human world. There were few who knew the incantation to invoke it. Standing, she walked toward the swirling surface and sampled the magic emanating from it. A single word formed on her lips, but she did not utter it. To do so might condemn her favorite trickster. Instead, she touched the mirror's surface and allowed the image to clear. The surface did not reflect her. The image within the mirror was of Owen Burnette, the human form Puck had assumed so many years ago.

"Do you have any idea what my lord will do to you if he finds out what you are doing?" Titania demanded of the majordomo.

"Oberon can bite me. This is much more important than his ego." Owen stated in a not so bland tone.

"My, aren't we bold tonight. Tell me...what is it that you wish?" Titania said mildly.

"The Guardian is free," he said simply and had the satisfaction of seeing Titania's eyes widen.

"Has she found her vessel? Is she about to be reborn, to whom?" Titania bombarded the man with questions.

"The vessel has been.....delayed. She requires magical support in order to acquire the vessel when it is conceived." Owen sighed.

"And this is why you have contacted me. Your risk Oberon's wrath even in this, Puck." Titania hissed.

"I realize that, my lady. There has been an interesting development regarding the vessel, however." Owen said even as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"And that is?" Titania asked. Her thought was that Fox might well become the mother of the guardian. _Oh how Oberon will rage at that_ , she thought. She was not prepared for what the puck said next.

"The vessel will be a human/gargoyle hybrid," Owen reverted to his oatmeal bland tone, but the puck within bounced around excitedly at the expression that passed over the queen's face.

"What?" she breathed.

"Elisa Maza and Goliath have already conceived one child. Unfortunately, that child was lost this night. They are meant to conceive another soon. That child will be the essence of Dracona herself. She was not able to take possession of the current vessel as it perished before we were certain who the vessel was meant to be." Owen explained as if he were instructing Titania in the art of making coffee.

/

"I don't understand how this is even possible," Dr. Sato exclaimed to himself as he examined the fetus that Elisa's body had expelled over an hour ago.

The tiny creature had many of the characteristics of a gargoyle, but there were also many human traits as well. She was exactly what he had imagined a human/gargoyle hybrid might look like. The thing that concerned him the most was the rate of development. By Elisa's calculations, she could not have been more than a gestational age of two months. Her preterm age seemed closer to that of a four month fetus, double the growth of a human. That had to be due to her father's unique genetics. He thought it might also have been a contributing factor in her death. Elisa's womb had stretched too quickly to support her and had not thickened adequately enough to protect her from outside impacts.

The tiny child had been surrounded by the soft shell of an egg. He suspected that shell would have remained soft until 'birth'. Given the developmental rate, he also assumed that the child would have 'hatched' within a few weeks of the shell hardening. The cause of the spontanious termination of the pregnancy was clear; blunt force trauma. He could find no obvious defects. Elisa did not need to go through another miscarriage if it could be prevented. He would watch her closely if the couple conceived again. Perhaps he might stimulate her womb to stretch more quickly with a hormone supplement if there was another child.

/

Elisa curled on her side in the bed, silent tears slipping over the bridge of her nose as she stared off at nothing. She had not even known she was pregnant. The missed monthly had been chalked up to trauma, both from the accident and the awakening of her magic. She had not given it a second thought. The other symptoms she had experienced were mild and she blew them off as well. She and Goliath were too different. There was no way they could possibly conceive and then there it was. The Guardian's words to her had slammed home with the unexpected contractions of miscarriage. She had experienced a full range of emotion, some of which she never wanted to visit again. Shock, understanding, elation, heart rending loss, grief, she had gone through them all. Now she felt empty. Her body ached, her baby was gone, a baby she had not even known existed until it was too late. _Goliath's_ baby...and now it was gone.

Goliath had tried to reach her in the weeks that followed the loss of their child. There had been a couple of females in the clan in 988 who had lost eggs before the clutching. He had not known then how to comfort them. Now it was his own mate and he had no clue how to reach her. With a gargoyle female, the signs of pregnancy would have been obvious almost from the start. Elisa was human and he had learned that humans did not always show obvious signs for several months. He had suspected, however. Her scent had changed over the last couple of weeks. It had become sweeter, more feminine and it had nearly driven him mad. There had not been a repeat of that first intimate encounter and he had wandered if perhaps she regretted it. He had not pursued the matter for fear of driving her further away. Now, he thought he knew why she had grown so distant.

As he had done over the last several weeks, Goliath sat on his knees near the side of the bed. He reached out and hesitated before running his talons gently over her scalp. Strong willed as she was, she seemed to have collapsed in on herself with the loss of their child. It was devastating to watch her utterly give up on everything around her. He knew she wanted children, but he had never suspected it was so very important to her. Knowing how close she had been to having that dream fulfilled and then ripped away nearly crushed even his heart. The fact that he had been the father was something he had thought he might only dream of. He felt the loss keenly, but refused to give in to it. Elisa needed him emotionally strong now. His grief came while she slept. Soon there would be a wind ceremony for the little one. He thought perhaps that would grant Elisa some solace.

It had been with a great amount of consternation that he had allowed the doctor time to examine the child's remains. They were told it had been female. Her tiny body had turned to stone and melted away to dust with the first rays of dawn that morning. The doctor had examined the dust as well before carefully scooping it into a small urn. All that remained was the ceremony itself and the lavender clan leader found he dreaded it.

/

The night of the wind ceremony, Goliath found himself unable to fully contain his grief. As clan leader, it was his duty to begin the ceremony with the release of the ashes and end it with the final flight. His grief caught up with him during the release. He had broken with custom and grown attached to Angela, acknowledging her as his daughter. She was one of the great joys of his life. As he released the ashes of the precious little one he would never know, he realized that he wanted nothing so much as to help raise a child. A gargoyle child would be raised by the clan, but he knew Elisa would insist on a more human view with their child. He had missed all of Angela's childhood and jumped straight into her young adulthood. He realized he would have taken great pride in raising a child with Elisa.

It was Goliath's tears and choked words over the urn before he released its contents that finally reached Elisa. After their flight among the ashes during the closure of the ceremony, she had tightened her arms around his neck and let loose the full fury of her grief. She had been afraid to face it, afraid of what her wildfire magic might do with it. Now, she realized, she could not contain it. The storm broke over her heart just as it did over the castle. Thunder, lightning and drenching ran chased the others inside while she and Goliath clung to each other in the courtyard.

/

A tragic cliff-hanger, I know. Tragedy seems to surround this pair lately, but this is where they take the story. With magic involved, who knows what might be possible.

###  **More to come. Stay tuned.**

 

 


	12. Destruction's Course

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Demona has insidious plans. Her plans are generally the keys to her own tragic misfortunes.

Goliath dragged his wings through the night sky in an ever increasing rhythm. He came as close to truly flying as any gargoyle had in his haste. Elisa needed him. That was the one driving thought that pounded at his brain. It beat at him with every painful thrust of his wings. The thought of her in serious trouble spurred him onward to greater effort even as his wings strained to keep him airborne. His mighty wings faltered in their struggle just as he reached his target. The landing was not graceful, nor was it without some pain and scrabbling. He hit the railing and hooked his arms over it praying that he did not hit the ground. The talons of his feet dug into the wall and he hauled himself over the rail.

As he gained his feet he noticed several things at once. The glass door was standing open. It was horribly bent in its frame. There was broken glass everywhere and the apartment was devoid of light. Silence was the last and most prominent thing he noticed. His mate's dwelling was as silent as a tomb.

Cautiously, he stepped toward the entrance. He was ever mindful of the crunch of the glass underfoot. It sounded, to his ears, like thunder in the profound silence of the night. He was almost certain that anyone half a block away might hear it. His eyes, eyes made for nocturnal life, picked out the details of the room as he entered the apartment. The coffee table was smashed, the easy chair was turned over and the lamp that normally sat near it was in pieces on the floor. There were deep gouges in the carpet that could only have been made by talons.

Eyes flaring white, he caped his wings and knelt to inspect those gouges. He was sure they were fresh. Turning to the lamp, he carefully lifted it and looked it over. Blood coated the jagged section that had sheered off near the top. As he looked closer, he noticed there were bits of hair matted into the blood; red hair. _Demona_ , he thought with an outraged snarl.

As if on queue, his ears picked up a faint scraping sound from behind. His head snapped around and his eyes focused on a shadow that separated itself from the others. Too late, he attempted to block the swing that was aimed at the left wing strut wrapped around his shoulder. He heard the crunch of bone snapping the instant of impact. The blow tore a cry of rage and pain from his chest even as he rolled away from his assailant. His left arm and wing had gone blessedly numb from the shoulder down.

Smooth blue gargoyle legs and feet were the first things to emerge into the moonlit room. He noticed the anklet first. She stepped forward with a determined look on her face, the fireplace poker held high. Demona staggered toward him, one side of her face slick with blood. From the look of the wound, the lamp had caught her tiara and torn her ear and a sizable section of her the side of her face away with it. A grotesque flap of flesh dangled from her jaw. She looked like something straight out of a slasher movie. Elisa had done that, he knew it as surely as the sun would rise at dawn.

With a growl of renewed rage, Goliath pushed off the floor and tackled the female. He tore the poker from her grip and cast it aside like a twig. Pinning her to the floor, he glared at her in open fury. This female had caused him nothing but heartache and torment for as long as he could remember. She had rebelled against gargoyle custom in their youth and learned magic from the arch mage. Long before that, she had defied their rookery mothers and fathers. She went out of her way to cause trouble for the humans of Castle Wyvern. Her excuse was always the same; 'these cliffs were our home ages before the humans built their stone fortress'. He had grown tired of hearing those words. For a time, she had seemed to settle down and he had fallen in love with who she had pretended to be. Then she had begun to complain about Hudson's leadership, his age and even what she viewed as weakness. Once Goliath was raised to leader, she had seemed to settle down once more and he had appointed her his second. He realized now that appointment had been the mistake that had cost him most of his clan.

Glaring at her now, he did not know what he had ever seen in her. It was blazingly obvious that she had never been fit for leadership in any form. He knew now that she had never been fit to be his mate. There had been wisps of doubt in his heart when he had withdrawn his mating pledge, but he saw them for what they were now. Those doubts had been his heart's last desperate plea to hold onto the final piece of his former life, nothing more. _By the dragon_ , he thought tiredly, _what in the seventh level of hell made me believe I ever loved her_?

Finally the taboo was broken, and he blinked. In reality it had only lasted mere seconds, but to his mind, he had relived a good portion of his youth. Now he thumped her head against the hard floor roughly and snarled, his words a bellow, _“Where is Elisa_?!”

Demona met his glare with disdain. The answer she gave was not the one he wanted, “I should have shattered you while you slept a millennium ago.”

“ _What have you done?!_ ” his voice was almost a desperate plea as it rose an octave.

“What have _you_ done? You rejected me, cast me aside for a _human_?! Oh and not just any human, a half Fae bitch who tried to _incinerate_ me!” Demona raged at him and watched the white fire of anger bleed out of his eyes. She continued in a hard voice of disgust, “You're weak, Goliath, foolish..... You were never fit to lead the clan. That's why you left the clan's eggs, _our_ egg! You left our Angela alone to be raised by _humans_.”

Goliath's anger reignited at her accusations. Every word gouged into his heart with a razor's edge of truth. He had done what any sane gargoyle would have, entrusted the future of his clan with those who would ensure their survival. In that moment he had lost everything. A single gargoyle could not have raised thirty-six hatchlings alone. He had no way of knowing in that time that there were other gargoyle clans scattered across the globe. If he had, his decision might have been different. The clan's children might eventually have seen him as responsible for the massacre once they learned of it, however. He could have been outcast by the very children he meant to raise and protect. No, his decision had been the best one. The eggs had been spirited away to Avalon where they had grown strong and healthy beyond the reach of the conflicts of the world.

“My leadership and decisions of the past are not at question,” Goliath's voice had taken on a deadly quite tone. He barely resisted an urge to wrap his hands around her neck and snap it. “Now, once again, _demon_ , where is _Elisa_?”

Demona gasped at his words. She searched his face and saw only pure and blinding hatred for her in his eyes. He had called her 'demon' and not Demona. There was a great deal of significance in the subtle change. He had denounced her and withdrawn his mating pledge nearly a year ago, but she had refused to believe he hated her. Now that hatred blazed down at her and his words cut more deeply into her soul than she ever dreamed possible. Her voice, when it came, was barely more than a whisper as she glanced at his limp left wing, “I've done what the clan should have done before raising you to leader. I've taken the skies from you.”

Rage, resentment, torment all mingled together in his heart. He would not hit her, would not abuse her in any way. It was not in his nature to deliberately harm a female of any race if he could avoid it. The anger broke in a roar and he put his fists through the floor on either side of her head.

“Oh, I'm sorry. Did I forget to mention that I've taken your _human_ _whore_ from you as well?” she asked sweetly as she squirmed beneath him.

The anger snapped and one of his hands closed around her throat, but did not squeeze. He wanted to frighten her, he was not above intimidating a female if he must. The realization struck him that he might not be above hurting this one if it meant saving his mate. That notion settled a new stone into his heart.

“Are you going to _kill_ me now? Become the beast the humans believe you to be? Oh _please_ try....,” Demona pretended to plead and then laughed in his face. There was a hysterical edge to her voice. They both knew no matter what he might do to her, she would rise again. She always survived.

“No....that's what you want, what you _truly_ want, isn't it? You long for death, but it will not be at my hands.” Goliath half growled, half whispered as he released her.

“Foolish as ever,” Demona hissed as she drew something from her belt and thrust her hand toward his side as he began to move away from her.

Goliath caught the glint of metal in the moonlight out of the corner of his eye. Dulled though his reflexes where from the pain in his wing, he still managed to catch the blade before she stabbed him. He grunted in pain as the blade slipped completely through the palm of his hand. Blood ran down the hilt even as he closed his hand around it and jerked it from her grasp. The blade had missed his side by bare inches as it tore through the back of his hand.

“My death will not be at your hands this night, Demona,” he growled at her as he hauled her to her feet and pushed her away from him forcefully.

“Are you certain of that, _my love_?” she spat as she backed away from the behemoth. “Truly?”

Goliath blinked and glanced down at the knife protruding from his hand. He grasped the hilt and with a grunt, jerked it out of his burning flesh. He cast it aside as a wave of dizziness washed over him. In the next instant he staggered and put his unblemished hand to his head.

“What have you done?” he hissed, his tail thumping the floor in agitation as he tried to steady himself.

“Merely a sedative. I want you to live with the knowledge that you could do nothing to prevent your human pet's death.” Demona purred as she slowly circled him.

“Where is she? I will not allow you......to harm her.....,” his speech was slurring from the affects of the drug.

“You will never find her, at least not in time. What does it matter? Elisa Maza will be dead by noon tomorrow and there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it.” Demona purred once more as she came to a stop before him, just out of reach. “I hope your mind rots with the knowledge that _you_ brought this upon her.”

Goliath made a grab for her as she backed further out of his reach and missed. He overbalanced and fell forward like a collapsing mountain. The sudden full bodied impact with the floor thundered through the room and forced the breath from his lungs with a grunt. The world swirled around him in a sickening kaleidoscope and he squeezed his eyes shut. With each act of torment Demona performed on his senses, she slammed another nail into the coffin that held all his memories of their 'love'. He did not think he would ever be able to allow her to return to the clan. Even if she somehow became a saint, the thought of her rejoining them sickened him.

The world seemed to flicker in and out of existence for him. He thought he heard Elisa call his name once. Images passed before his eyes long moments before his mind could grasp what they were. Demona had dragged Elisa past him, of that much, he was certain. He caught a glimpse of her tear stained, frightened face before his world finally went black.

/

Demona did not wait to be sure if Goliath was still breathing, she made her way back to the detective's bedroom. The woman was still semi-unconscious across the bed on her stomach. Her hands were pinned behind her back with her own handcuffs. A livid bruise was forming on the right side of her face where the gargess had been forced to punch her. It had taken an act of will not to take her head cleanly off her shoulders after the woman had hit her with the heavy lamp. Her tiara had gone sailing off into the room somewhere along with a piece of her scalp. The lamp had slid down her face upon impact and torn a flap loose along with her ear. The healing affects of the immorality spell would only fix that if she managed to close the wound. Until she did so, it would continue to bleed.

Leaving the woman on the bed, Demona ventured into the bathroom just off the bedroom. She flipped on the light and began rummaging for bandages. It did not take her long to find what she sought. With a great deal of care and hissing from pain, she managed to pull the offending flap of flesh back into place. After that, it was just a matter of binding it with gauze and the ace wrap she had found. She glanced at herself in the mirror once she was finished and realized she looked like a demon with a toothache. Groaning at the analogy, she flicked the light off and headed back toward the woman who was beginning to stir.

Reaching down, Demona hauled Elisa roughly to her feet. “Come, _detective_. You have an appointment with destiny. Let's not keep the good doctor waiting.”

/

Elisa was instantly alert when she was roughly jerked to her feet. She struggled weakly against the cuffs that bit into her wrists; her own cuffs. Demona's talons bit into her upper arm near her elbow as she was shoved toward the door. The world was surrounded by a halo, her vision not quite stable as she staggered down the hall toward the living-room.

Glancing to her right, she gasped as she saw Goliath's massive form sprawled out between pieces of ruined furniture. She called to him, her voice choked with sudden tears. His eyes rolled toward her, the expression on his face blank, slack from whatever drug Demona had pumped him full of. His left wing draped over his shoulder at an odd angle and she feared it might be broken. He reached for her weakly before he slumped back to the floor. Unconsciousness claimed him completely in that moment.

“A pity he won't be able to rescue you this time. He will sleep until sunrise. His wing will be permanently ruined. He will never glide again and he has _you_ to thank for that. If only you had not corrupted his heart, he might have......,” Demona paused as she shoved Elisa forcefully out the broken balcony door. “Well, it doesn't matter. What could have been will never be now. He will mourn your death. Then, one night very soon, he will rue the night he laid eyes on you. It will take time, but he will come to realize that you are the reason the skies are forever more denied to him.”

“ _You're insane_! _You_ broke his wing!”Elisa snapped, still too weak to struggle against her captor.

“ _Yes,_ I broke his wing! I would break the other wing if given the chance,” she snatched Elisa up around the middle and leaped over the rail. “Now be quiet unless you wish to become a smear on the street below.”

The sudden drop forced the air from Elisa's lungs. She closed her eyes and braced for an impact with the ground that never came. The sound of Demona's wings snapping open in the wind encouraged her to open her eyes again. In a matter of seconds they had gained a good deal of altitude. No longer were they at a survivable height from the ground. The gargess took them high above the skyscrapers. A fall from such a height would be fatal. The detective considered struggling for half a heartbeat. She discarded the idea in favor of survival.

/

Goliath's mind swam up to the surface of reality well before dawn. He glanced at the night sky and realized dawn was at least a couple of hours away. A sigh of relief escaped him before the memory of Elisa being roughly hauled out of her apartment came to his sluggish mind. He was sure it had been real. The scent of her soap and the musk that was uniquely her still lingered on the still air. Demona had taken her hostage. He needed to contact the clan. There was no time to waste.

Pushing himself up on an elbow, he checked the communicator around his neck to be sure it had not been smashed in his fall. It seemed sound as he turned it over and activated it. His voice, when it came, was shockingly weak. The drug his former mate had coated the blade with still held sway over his great strength.

“Demona has taken Elisa. I.....cannot follow..... My _wing_..... _Demona broke my wing_.....,” Goliath whispered the last into the small mic in a pained voice.

“I'll bring Lex and the doctor. We'll come get you. Brooklyn, Broadway and Hudson tore out of here in search of Demona as if she were Satan himself.” Xanatos' voice crackled over the earbud with a burst of static.

“Why are you....,” Goliath began and the human male interrupted him.

“I always monitor patrol communications, Goliath. I never know when one of the clan might need help of the steel clan variety. You have to admit, they tend to get themselves into more trouble than they can dig themselves out of.” Xanatos snarked.

Despite himself, Goliath heaved a great sigh of relief as he attempted to push himself up onto his haunches. For the first time since the clan had been reinstalled to their ancestral home he did not feel as if the billionaire was intruding into clan business. In fact, little by little, the man had been proving his worth. He had managed to regain a sizable portion of the big clan leader's trust over the last couple of years. Not an easy task by any means considering his past betrayal. Now, he realized, the man had somehow become......clan.

A faint chuckle escaped Goliath's lips in the face of everything that had befallen him in the last hours. He felt as if his mind was teetering on the edge of sanity. To believe Xanatos could ever be considered clan he must truly have lost his mind. The irony of it all was that without Xanatos the clan would still be collecting moss, as he had so eloquently put it some years ago. Even with his betrayal and redemption, Goliath had come to value his reliability to say nothing of his resources. Now he was once again proving himself to be a valued ally. _Perhaps, in time, the man might claim a place of honor among the clan_ , Goliath thought ruefully. Time.....there was so very little of that just now, he realized as he glanced out the broken door toward the horizon. Dawn was coming....

/

 

So ends Season One of Winds of Change...

More to come in Season Two.

Will Xanatos and Dr. Sato reach Goliath before dawn? What diabolical plans does Demona have in store for Elisa? Will the rest of the clan catch up to Demona before she delivers their friend to the mysterious doctor?

 

Find out in Winds of Change: Season Two....

 


End file.
